Hollywood Makes It Official Older Women Are Sexy
January 29th, 2008 by GiGiWe don’t need Hollywood to tell us that older women are sexy, but I found this cute article I thought you’d enjoy
Hollywood makes it official: Older women are sexy
May I have the envelope, please? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the verdict is in and Hollywood has decided: Older women are officially declared sexy. At least that’s the media’s response to two major releases this holiday season. The media have ruled it so (and they always know, don’t they?) due to the success of “Something’s Gotta Give,” starring Diane Keaton, rejuvenating her career after a decade or two of semi-retirement, and “Calendar Girls,” starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters - British actresses of a certain age.
In the former, Keaton plays a fabulously successful playwright in her 50s who dumps Keanu Reeves, a hunk of a younger lover, for Jack Nicholson, who plays a terminally single, senescent playboy. In the latter, a sweet group of polite British 40-to-60-something ladies pose nude (or almost) as a fund-raising stunt to drum up money for one of their cancer-stricken spouses.
For the longest time, stretch marks and wrinkles were beyond passe. They were verboten, terminators, as it were for women’s acting careers. Now (we can hope at least) they’re in vogue.
It’s about time the reel Hollywood caught up with the real Hollywood. In their private lives, older actresses are pairing up with younger male stars at unheard-of rates. Look at a sampling of Hollywood’s hottest couples: Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher- she is 16 years his senior. Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake - he is 9 years younger than she. Then there’s 44-year-old Madonna with her director-spouse Guy Ritchie, 10 years her junior. There’s Julianne Moore, who trumps her mate, Bart Freundlich, by nine years.
Long gone is the time (1967 was the year) when “Mrs. Robinson” was new to the Hollywood lexicon and the idea of older woman with her “spring rooster” was shocking, jaw-dropping, and bizarre. Even into the early ’70s, the movie-going public was still incredulous when Burt Reynolds, then a major sex symbol (but God knows why) had a four-year romance with singer Dinah Shore, who was 20 years older.
But is this progress, or is it Botox? Are younger men just more accepting of white hair, yellowed teeth, wrinkles, and sagging skin? Or have Botox, hair dye, tooth bleach, and plastic surgery merely transformed 60-year-old women into 45-year-old look-alikes?
Novelist and columnist Amy Sohn makes a fabulous point on her Web site. “Women in my mother’s generation are supposed to be happy that there are more and more roles for middle-aged actresses, but there’s not much to applaud for when the actresses look like mutated freaks. When my parents see a movie and my dad admits a crush on the 52-year-old, nipped-and-tucked, female star, my mom’s not going to feel flattered. She’s going to feel majorly dissed - because until she pays the 20 grand to get the work done herself, she’ll never be able to compare.”
The question is valid: If middle-age and older actresses merely cut and paste themselves into looking younger, are they really leading us into a new era, or just reinvigorating ancient stereotypes?
While we are not yet riding the crest of a tsunami, the data tell us we’re moving forward. The Screen Actors Guild collects data on diversity in filmmaking. In 2001, the guild reports actresses landed 38 percent of all movie roles and actresses over the age of 40 landed 24 percent of all film roles. That, while women overall accounted for 51 percent of the U.S. population, and women over the age of 40 represent 22.6 percent of the population. In 1992, actresses secured 29 percent of total roles and women over the age of 40 landed a mere 9 percent.
Actress Rosanna Arquette released a documentary earlier this year called, “Searching for Deborah Winger” in which she interviewed 25 leading (or formerly leading) actresses including Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Sharon Stone, and Vanessa Redgrave. They talked about the consequences of aging and trying to stay alive professionally in an industry that so worships youth. Said Whoopi Goldberg, “I’m being stalked by my butt. It’s gotten bigger since I hit 45 and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Ah, Whoopi! Lead us to truth, once again.
Technorati Tags: Hollywood, older women, article, sexy, Diane Keaton, Helen Mirren, Keanu Reeves, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Madonna, Julianne Moore, Rosanna Arquette
