wrangletangle (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wrangletangle) wrote2013-02-15 08:56 pm
wrangletangle) wrote2013-02-15 08:56 pm
Entry tags:
All the Senior Ladies!
(This month, I'm contributing to #femslash february by highlighting female character-centric and femslash-centric tags at AO3.)
(And sorry for the gap, guys! I'm posting Wednesday and today's posts back to back as a result.)
It is a truth generally acknowledged by the entertainment industry that a woman who stars in a television show or film, shall the vast majority of the time be under the age of 40. She might, on a lucky day, be as much as 50. *koff* *Susan Sarandon "too old" to play Catwoman* *koff*
60? 70? Older? Very rare.
Is that really what we want to tell young women? "Enjoy it while you can, because once you get wrinkles, your story is over." Really? And do we want to be telling older women that they shouldn't expect to see themselves in media, except as someone's two-scene grandma dispensing worn-out advice, or appearing only to die in the same chapter/episode to create emotional growth for someone else?
Ick.
Today's challenge: offer the world a leading lady or major supporting character who is canonically over 50. (And please not someone who's an youthful alien or magically appears younger for some other reason.) Any canon, any medium. Go!
Freeform of the day: Older Woman (I couldn't find a single other tag for these ladies. Even "Grandmothers" was folded into "Grandparents & Grandchildren".)
So, who's up? Got any awesome older lady pairings for everyone?
(And sorry for the gap, guys! I'm posting Wednesday and today's posts back to back as a result.)
It is a truth generally acknowledged by the entertainment industry that a woman who stars in a television show or film, shall the vast majority of the time be under the age of 40. She might, on a lucky day, be as much as 50. *koff* *Susan Sarandon "too old" to play Catwoman* *koff*
60? 70? Older? Very rare.
Is that really what we want to tell young women? "Enjoy it while you can, because once you get wrinkles, your story is over." Really? And do we want to be telling older women that they shouldn't expect to see themselves in media, except as someone's two-scene grandma dispensing worn-out advice, or appearing only to die in the same chapter/episode to create emotional growth for someone else?
Ick.
Today's challenge: offer the world a leading lady or major supporting character who is canonically over 50. (And please not someone who's an youthful alien or magically appears younger for some other reason.) Any canon, any medium. Go!
Freeform of the day: Older Woman (I couldn't find a single other tag for these ladies. Even "Grandmothers" was folded into "Grandparents & Grandchildren".)
So, who's up? Got any awesome older lady pairings for everyone?
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Off the Latest Things page
–N
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Current favorites:
Shirley Schmidt (Boston Legal)
Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica reboot)
Patty Hewes (Damages)
Sarah Jane Smith (as seen in The Sarah Jane Adventures)
Separately, But I'm A Cat Person includes in the supporting cast Karen Park (a grandmother, and a member of the US House of Representatives) and Ann Walker (similar in age, running an international megacorporation). No tags for them yet on the AO3, but I live in hope.
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From the AtLA universe, there are Kanna/Gran Gran and Lin Beifong. Although she hasn't appeared officially within the canon and doesn't have a set age, her youngest brother is 51, so Kya (Kanna's great-granddaughter) also qualifies!
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Violet Crawley, Isobel Crawley, Martha Levinson and Elsie Hughes from Downton Abbey. (I can find at least one older femslash pairing too: Isobel Crawley/Elsie Hughes). I'm not sure whether Cora Crawley's over 50 or not yet. I think she must be by now?
Jane Marple (Agatha Christie) Also Araidne Oliver (who does have a tag if no proper fic)
Connie James from Spooks/MI5 and Tessa Phillips
Mrs Hudson (BBC Sherlock)
Sandra Pullman (New Tricks)
M (as played by Dame Judi in the more recent Bond films).
Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter)
Dolores Landingham (West Wing)
Harriet Jones, Evelyn Smythe and Amelia Rumford (Doctor Who)
Widow Lucas/Granny in Once Upon A Time.
There is a theory that the world is run by deceptively awesome older ladies. :-)
I forgot somebody important...
MIss Kitty on Gunsmoke!
Notable items:
- Miss Kitty is a single woman who operates her own business. This was comonplace in the American West, but rare in radio & television in the 1950s-1970s. (The show aired in 55 and ran 20 years on TV. However, it was a popular radio show from 1952-1961. Yes, it aired for 6 years on CBS radio at the same time new episodes were airing on CBS TV.)
- While most (but not all) saloons of the period were also brothels, she maintained a "decesnt establishment," and woe to him that laid an unwelcome hand on one of her girls.
- Her mildly flirtatious, openly caring, relationship with Marshall Dillon. Although it was touted as a deep friendship, the under-current of do-they-or-don't-they (at a time when TV censors didn't allow married couples to be seen in the same bed unless one prson had a foot was on the floor) should have been scandalous. Instead, Miss Kitty was probably the only saloon-keeper in television that was held up as a role-model.