Women, celebrity and cultures of ageing: Freeze frame

Abstract

Women, Celebrity and Cultures of Ageing interrogates the relationship between women, ageing and celebrity, examining how celebrity culture plays a crucial role in mapping out the social and cultural meanings of 'older' and ageing women. Indeed, with the corporeality of female celebrities being surveilled and scrutinised by popular media forms on a daily basis, celebrity culture now serves a key function in shoring up 'appropriate' and 'inappropriate' images and directives regarding how women 'should' age. Focusing on an array of historical and contemporary star/celebrity images, including figures such as Bette Davis, 'Moms' Mabley, Jennifer Aniston, Grace Jones and Dame Judi Dench, the book seeks to examine the powerful, contradictory and sometimes celebratory ways in which celebrity culture constructs discourses on the limits and possibilities of ageing femininities.