When mature women control the camera, the male gaze is replaced by an empathetic, unflinching human gaze. Wrinkles are not airbrushed out. Bodies are not posed for maximum titillation. They are simply lived in . Of course, we are not at the finish line. Ageism is still rampant. Female leads over 40 still get only 25% of the leading roles compared to their male counterparts. The "best actress" category still skews younger than "best actor." And there is a vicious tendency to pit mature actresses against each other (the "Fonda vs. Redford" fallacy doesn't exist; the "Fonda vs. Streep" does).
Catherine Breillat (75) just released Last Summer , a shocking drama about a 50-year-old lawyer having an affair with her 17-year-old stepson. It is not a film that seeks your approval; it demands you take the complexity of an older woman's desire seriously. When mature women control the camera, the male
The future lies in intersectionality. We need stories about mature queer women (think Gentleman Jack ), mature disabled women, and mature women of all economic backgrounds. The image of the "mature woman in entertainment" is no longer a sad, fading star looking back at her youth. She is not a cautionary tale about the cruelty of time. She is the hero. She is the detective who solves the crime because she has seen every con before. She is the action star who wins because she is patient. She is the lover who knows what she wants. She is the comedian who has earned the right to be angry and funny at the same time. They are simply lived in
Today, that narrative is being incinerated. Shows like Grace and Frankie (starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, who was 77 when the show began) proved that audiences are ravenous for stories about sex, friendship, and failure in the golden years. It wasn't a weepy drama about death; it was a raucous comedy about starting over. Female leads over 40 still get only 25%
