Ageing Femininity on Screen

Book excerpt: What can queer theory, media studies and feminism bring to our understanding of cinema's Lavender Ladies? Addressing the groundswell of scholarly interest in age and its representation, Ageing Femininity on Film explores character tropes for old women in recent film. Alongside a proliferation of negative stereotypes, like the grotesque hag or the dotty old fool, this book illuminates gentility as a key alternative. Across classics of British and American cinema since the 1980s, including Driving Miss Daisy and The Queen, ageing females are empowered by genteel manners. They are amateur sleuths, retired political figures, and everyday women who refuse to be ignored. Studying examples beyond the "politics of pity," this important book unpacks the multi-faceted relationship between gentility and feminine strength.