Stretching middle age: the lessons and labours of active ageing in the makeover show

Abstract

This article responds to the claim that there is a critical neglect of age and ageing across media and television studies. It does so by arguing an exploration of the insights from the fields of critical gerontology/Age Studies and Media Studies allows critical scrutiny of the intersection between populist stereotyping of age, the pedagogic function of the makeover culture, and the prevailing public policy discourses that place responsibility on individuals, notably women, to hold back their old age. This article extends the argument that the pedagogical function of the makeover is to train us into culturally inhabitable bodies, to claim that age shapes what corporeal and cultural dwellings are currently intelligible.