For generations, Hollywood treated the sexuality of older women as either nonexistent or a punchline. Recent cinema actively pushes against this puritanical boundary. Projects like Good Luck to You, Leo Grande , starring Emma Thompson, offer revolutionary, body-positive, and deeply empathetic explorations of female pleasure and intimacy in later life.
She read it twice on the train from Brooklyn, the Manhattan skyline smudged through the grimy window. The lead character, Irene, was a 64-year-old former jazz pianist, prickly, brilliant, and slowly losing her hearing. She wasn’t a wise grandmother, a comic relief, or a corpse in the first act. She was furious, tender, and deeply, embarrassingly human.
While the progress made by mature women in Hollywood is undeniable, the intersection of ageism with racism and classicism remains an ongoing battle. Historically, women of color faced an even steeper drop-off in opportunities as they aged.
: In 2019, none of the top-grossing films in several major markets featured a female lead over 50, whereas multiple films featured older male leads. Stereotyping