crones

So how are older women represented in media and popular culture? What roles do they play? What was I exposed to? I started with Disney. Older female characters mostly seem to be there to support the young protagonist in a ‘Fairy Godmother’ kind of way or -if the if they get a more important / complex role it is almost always the frustrated, bitter-gone-evil spinster witch. In the last couple of years there seems to be a little more space for character development for elderly women besides these two stereotypes (Moana (2016) Coco (2017).

-------------------------------

Love the grey hair <3

TThe BACKDROP to which older women are represented to me feels not empowering them at all. Their value seems to be measured by parameters embedded in youth culture.

OLDER WOMEN and REPRESENTATION

I love the subject of sexuality and there is still too much taboo around it. Like the thought that elderly people are still sexually active. Various artists have already tried to shine a light on this. For instance Erwin Olaf and Natalie Krick. But this is not empowering older women as I would like to see it. It might emancipate a little but for me it mostly makes sex an important aspect within the discourse. I want to deviate from that. Not to ignore it, but also not making it more important than necessary.

SEX SELLS, BUT I'M
NOT BUYING IT.

Erwin Olaf: Mature - Claudia S., 63, 1999

Natalie Krick: Natural deceptions - Mom in front of the shower curtain, 2017

May Sarton: “Ontzeg me mijn leeftijd niet. Ik heb die verdiend.”

It's not that I don't think older women could benifit from exercise or that I deny the positivity of the message of this 54 year old Ashkaine Hora Adema. But again... the focus is on appearance, trying to look as young as possible. It is though, an alternative image of an older woman. Growing old on her own terms.

If I casually want to bump into older women role models within mainstream media, I find them in a magazine like ‘Happinez’. So is this where they belong? In the context of a spiritual / mindful lifestyle?

Than again, whem you look at the advertising whithin 'Happinez' ... the backdrop is the same as the other glossies.

Online I discovered the Dutch online magazine ‘Saar 50+ maar nog lang niet dood’ aimend at women over fifty.

Text from the website of the Dutch Red Hat Society:

"Over Ons:

EERSTE NEDERLANDSE RED HAT SOCIETY CHAPTER
Op 27 februari 2005 heb ik de eerste chapter in Nederland opgericht, vandaar onze naam. Het tweede chapter kwam in Den Helder en de derde in Zutphen. Met de queens van het eerste uur hebben wij een bijzondere band. Ook met Queen Antoinette van chapter Noord Kennemerland. Zij had zich nl. als een van de eersten in februari 2005 bij ons aangemeld en is in 2006 haar eigen chapter in Castricum begonnen. Eind februari kwam het artikel in het NRC over de red hat society en de aanmeldingen stroomden binnen. Ons chapter telt 28 chapterettes. Iedereen heeft een adellijke of andere frivole naam. Er is gelukkig weinig verloop in onze chapter, wat betekent dat de sfeer goed is. Inmiddels zijn er 99 chapters over heel Nederland verspreid. Er zijn geen regels voor red hatters, want we zijn tenslotte een desorganisatie: BEHALVE BOVEN DE 50 ZIJN NIET ZEUREN (daar is een pity kitty voor) EEN RODE HOED EN PAARSE KLEDING. (Regalia)"

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

-Jenny Joseph
from Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 1992)

Vrouw boven de vijftig
ik zoek je stem,
wat zeg je..?
Ik versta je niet.
Ik hoor alleen maar hem
of haar, vruchtbaar
slank en strak.
Of de agressieve jij,
gestoken in een mantelpak.

Lot 2018

“We are entering a point of time where media define who we are (...) we’re also entering a time where we have a lot more control over the media that defines us (...) I feel like we all have the responsibility -as media makers- to create things that challenge us to think in a more sophisticated fashion and can help us evolve in our thinking.”

An online documentation (archive) by Lot Bordeaux 2018 - present

Introduction.

There are two main reasons I wanted to research this subject, the first being: me wanting see role models I can relate to in our visual culture. I am in my late thirties and I am missing the diversity of aging women when it comes to representation in mainstream media. I can not shrug my shoulders about this because of the clues I found in many articles and literature that suggest it is very harmful to the image of self to be under- or mis-represented. Second reason: positive comments about me looking so young for my age. When you hear this on a weekly basis for twenty or more years, you (or at least I did) start to wonder what it is that is so great about it. Being young, looking youthful. And what it is that is so terrible about getting older, wrinkles. The implicit and explicit message I -especially as a woman- get from my environment is: beware of getting older. Try to look as young as possible for as long as possible, or else… Or else what?

During the minor ‘Cultural Diversity’ – which I followed in 2018/2019 at de Willem de Kooning Academie- I came I came in contact with the term representation through the theory of Stuart Hall.

Opening quote from the book 'Wijze Vrouwen' by Susan Smit, 2003
A book I read years ago, and find very inspiring.

I bought a NOUVEAU magazine, which has 40+ women as their target group and VROUW wich is for 30+ women.

looking at mainstream magazines, I took pictures from what is on the shelves of a small store that sells books, stationary and such.

Also relevant for my research: (the act of) stereotyping, also discussed in Hall's work and part of the minors curriculum.

Image I made about stereotyping

Artistic work about aging

'The Gaze' also a relevant, who is looking at older women? How are they framed an by whom?

Gender, important beacause I am looking at older WOMEN, not men.

Artistic work about stereotyping

I borrowed this book from a friend, during the practice of Cultural Diversity. About how we relate to others, and what it means. It resonated so strongly with my personal reasons to create and with the practice outlines, it assured me to go and follow the minor.

Inspiring feminine text, and a publication of something personal that is also political.

In 2018 I started documenting public advertisement offline and online, to see which bodies are being used in them. To see the result up 'till now:

The power you have as a professional image maker.

Artistic work about aging

Who (over 50 and female) is allowed in Hollywood?

Alternative and positive representation of older women in animation:

A film I want to see:

Researching (images of) the archetype of the Crone-goddess

representations in film / series:

sketch / try out portret of one of the women i interviewed

looking at old apples

Snow White about age.

This page focuses on visual research, but not in an artistic sense for it is a documentation of exsiting images produced in western cultural context. The images are accompanied by comments, thoughts and scribbles that could be viewed in the same way you look at notes in a diary. The ocasional visual made by me is on a pink background. On the right you'll find a time line with references to theory or publications I collected along the way that were of some importance in the devellopment of this project. The order is chronological -starting at the top in 2018- but some sections leave room for additional pictures because together they make more sense.

Lot Bordeaux 2020 - WDKA Graduation project.

magazines /glossies for older 'Third Age' women

Looking at old apples.

Interesting: Vogue used to have a fictional character “Mrs. Exeter” representing an elderly women with style. Aging with grace, not trying to look younger or denying her age. She disappeared when during the 60’s youth culture became dominant (Twigg, 2018).
<---