Film and the marketplace exclusion of aging female sexuality: a critical feminist review

This chapter draws on research from marketing and consumer research, gerontology, feminist theory and sociology to argue for the responsible marketing to and of ageing female consumers as normatively invisibilised and marginalised social actors in the marketplace, demonstrating the potential of mediated representations to influence this consumer group and perceptions of them. This chapter identifies postfeminist and successful aging discourses (re)presented in mediated representations of ageing female sexuality and articulates how they perpetuate a discriminatory feminine ideal that has real implications for ageing female consumers’ self-esteem and confidence. In this, this chapter demonstrates how representations of ageing female sexuality contribute to a nuanced reworking of sexism that maintains exclusionary definitions of gender and sexuality that intersect with ageism, extending normative postfeminist gender politics to midlife and older women. The chapter begins by setting out the academic importance of representation as an area of enquiry, then considers age and ageing and age and sexuality. Part 2 locates these debates in postfeminist discourse and considers the intersectional dimensions, limitations and exclusionary implications of the representations. The final section discusses the affective dimensions of representations of ageing female sexuality for contemporary midlife female consumers. The chapter ends with a conclusion, detailing the key findings and suggestions for future research. Throughout, the chapter takes a critical feminist and intersectional approach to consider exclusions and draw attention to class systems and social structures to highlight how power circulates and how the self is experienced through consumption, shedding light on its potential to shape and inform gendered and sexual politics.