Ghosted Images: Old Lesbians on Screen

Screen images of old lesbians combine modes of representing female gender, lesbian sexuality, and old age, all of which contain layers of otherness within a hetero-patriarchal and youth-centered society. Analyzing a range of films, from independent to mainstream cinema, this article explores how the ghosted lesbian paradigm intersects with narratives of aging as decline in representations of lesbian characters who are over the age of sixty. The spectral matters of illness, death, mourning, and widowhood inevitably culminate in an unhappy ending. Removed from a lesbian community context, intergenerational continuity vanishes and the old lesbian emerges as the cultural other

Judi Dench's age-inappropriateness and the role of M: Challenging normative temporality

This article approaches Judi Dench's role as M in the long-running James Bond series from a gender and ageing studies' perspective and explores this character's subversion of normative concepts of gender and temporality. Based on the assumption that cultural narratives shape our understanding of ageing, it examines how M disrupts prescribed age- and gender roles, presenting an alternative within films which otherwise perpetuate normative notions of a sexualised, youthful femininity. It focusses on Dench's return as M in Casino Royale (2006), as an instance of anachronism (Russo, 1999), subverting viewers' expectation of linear timelines and examines M's challenge of normative age-appropriateness in Skyfall (2012). Despite M's portrayal as a more vulnerable female character in the latter, this article presents her character as an alternative to traditional portrayals of older women on screen

Exploring the Hypervisibility Paradox: Older Lesbians in Contemporary Mainstream Cinema (1995-2009)

This thesis explores the intersection of age, gender and sexuality in representations of older lesbian characters in contemporary narrative film. Taking the 1990s as a benchmark of lesbian visibility, I explore the turn of the century representability by focusing on British and American film (1995 to 2009). I identify a hypervisibility paradox during this period of cinematic production where the presence of a multitude of young lesbian and bisexual characters can be seen to be in complete contrast with the invisibility of the older lesbian. Mainstream postfeminist culture censors the ageing female body, except in its ‘successfully aged’, youthful, heterosexualised form. Older lesbian characters are excluded from this frame of visibility and, instead, are represented through paradigms associated with the concept of ‘ageing as decline.’ There is little in existing age studies or lesbian film studies to articulate an understanding of the intersection of age, gender and sexuality in cinematic representation. I adopt an interdisciplinary cultural studies approach to make my contribution in what is an under-researched area and present a multifaceted approach to a complex cultural image. I investigate the continuity of the concept of the lesbian as ghostly (Castle, 1993) through narratives of illness, death and mourning. I argue that the narrative of ‘ageing as decline’ stands in for the process of ‘killing off’ lesbian characters (identified in 1960s and 1970s cinema). The intersection of the identity old with lesbian thus results in a double ghosting and ‘disappearance’ of the older lesbian character. Regarding Notes on a Scandal (Eyre, 2006), I pursue two particular readings. One emphasises the return of the lesbian as monstrous based on the construction of ageing and lesbian desire as abject (Kristeva, 1982). A second reading moves beyond the monstrous lesbian as a ‘negative’ stereotype and identifies the protagonist as a queer character who subverts heteronormativity. Finally, I turn to oppositional reading practices in order to optimise the possibilities of identifications across mainstream film texts. Based on Judi Dench’s various transgressive film roles, her role as M in the Bond franchise in particular, I explore this actress’ subversive potential to represent the older lesbian. I conclude that despite mainstream cinema’s hypervisibility paradox, characters who transgress age, gender and sexuality norms can provide opportunities for lesbian identification

Call the celebrity: Voicing the experience of women and ageing through the distinctive vocal presence of Vanessa Redgrave

Within the field of ageing studies, ageism is being challenged by querying the ‘progress-versus-decline’ binary (Gullette, 2004) so common in film and television texts and by interrogating the predominant discourse of age, which ‘pivots on the blunt binary of young and old, as if there were only two states of age’ (Woodward, 1999, p. xvii). One of the more productive perspectives suggests that we are young and old or old and young at the same time (Moglen, 2008; Segal, 2013). Whilst contemporary screen media now presents images of ageing which are more diverse and complex than earlier stereotypes and images, the oppositional binary between old and young still remains the most prevalent mode of representing generations. In this article, we focus on the contribution of Vanessa Redgrave’s distinctive vocal presence in relation to the narration of age. As the ‘grande dame who won't conform’, the distinctiveness of Redgrave’s voice incorporates elements of her controversial celebrity persona such as her profound belief in social justice and her personal experience of loss and mourning. Her own physiological ageing is also manifest in the sonic cadences of her post-menopausal voice but her status as one of Britain’s greatest and most enduring actresses works against typical notions of the disempowered older voice to command attention through her skilled delivery of vocal frequency, intensity range and quality (Prakup, 2012). As the voice-over narrator in Call the Midwife (BBC, 2012 – ) Redgrave’s voice facilitates a rare example of female subjectivity emerging as young and old at the same time. Redgrave’s serene, measured voice suggests both a process of reliable narration and also identity integration along the life course. Her voice-over serves to link the past and present of one of the central characters (Jenny Lee). The younger Jenny is thus mediated by an older woman’s experiences and, at the same time, the late life narrative of the older Jenny is re-energized

Call the celebrity: Voicing the experience of women and ageing through the distinctive vocal presence of Vanessa Redgrave

Within the field of ageing studies, ageism is being challenged by querying the ‘progress-versus-decline’ binary (Gullette, 2004) so common in film and television texts and by interrogating the predominant discourse of age, which ‘pivots on the blunt binary of young and old, as if there were only two states of age’ (Woodward, 1999, p. xvii). One of the more productive perspectives suggests that we are young and old or old and young at the same time (Moglen, 2008; Segal, 2013). Whilst contemporary screen media now presents images of ageing which are more diverse and complex than earlier stereotypes and images, the oppositional binary between old and young still remains the most prevalent mode of representing generations. In this article, we focus on the contribution of Vanessa Redgrave’s distinctive vocal presence in relation to the narration of age. As the ‘grande dame who won't conform’, the distinctiveness of Redgrave’s voice incorporates elements of her controversial celebrity persona such as her profound belief in social justice and her personal experience of loss and mourning. Her own physiological ageing is also manifest in the sonic cadences of her post-menopausal voice but her status as one of Britain’s greatest and most enduring actresses works against typical notions of the disempowered older voice to command attention through her skilled delivery of vocal frequency, intensity range and quality (Prakup, 2012). As the voice-over narrator in Call the Midwife (BBC, 2012 – ) Redgrave’s voice facilitates a rare example of female subjectivity emerging as young and old at the same time. Redgrave’s serene, measured voice suggests both a process of reliable narration and also identity integration along the life course. Her voice-over serves to link the past and present of one of the central characters (Jenny Lee). The younger Jenny is thus mediated by an older woman’s experiences and, at the same time, the late life narrative of the older Jenny is re-energized

“Older-wiser-lesbians” and “baby-dykes”: mediating age and generation in New Queer Cinema

Representations of intersections of gender, age, and sexuality can reveal deep-rooted cultural anxieties about older women and sexuality. Images of lesbian ageing are of particular interest in terms of alterity, as the old/er queer woman can combine layers of otherness—not only is she the cultural “other” within heteronormativity, but she can also appear as the opposite of popular culture’s lesbian chic. In this article, a cultural analysis of a range of films—If These Walls Could Talk 2 (dir. Anderson, Coolidge, and Heche 2000), Itty Bitty Titty Committee (dir. Babbit 2007), The Owls (dir. Dunye 2010), Hannah Free (dir. Carlton 2009), and Cloudburst (dir. Fitzgerald 2011)—considers diverse dramatisations of lesbian generations. This article interrogates to what extent alternative cinemas deconstruct normative conceptualisations of ageing. Drawing on recent critiques of post-feminist culture, and a range of feminist and age/ing studies scholarship, it suggests that a linear understanding of ageing and the generational underlies dominant depictions of oppositional binaries of young versus old, of generational segregation or rivalry, and the othering of age. It concludes that non-linear understandings of temporality and ageing contain the potential for New Queer Cinema to counteract such idealisations of youthfulness, which, it argues, is one of the most deep-rooted manifestations of (hetero)normativity

There are so many of us: a diversidade na representação da identidade lésbica em The well of loneliness de Radclyffe Hall

Tese de mestrado em Estudos Anglísticos apresentada à Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, 2007O romance The Well of Loneliness (1928), de Radclyffe Hall, pode ser considerado um dos mais conhecidos romances lésbicos cujo título, pelo menos, é familiar. Identidade e representação são categorias que se influenciam reciprocamente, tornando-se, portanto, indispensável analisar o tipo de identidade lésbica retratada nesta obra. Será possível conceber um discurso ‘reversivo’, tal como definido por Foucault, numa obra que integra uma definição de sexualidade desviante adoptada da sexologia, assim como uma idealização da heterossexualidade? A protagonista, Stephen Gordon, é representada de acordo com a noção de invertida congénita dos sexólogos do século XIX. Alegadamente emancipatória, por permitir entender a homossexualidade como patologia em vez de pecado ou crime, a teoria da inversão sexual deve ser entendida como prejudicial no caso da homossexualidade feminina. Ao contrário da homossexualidade masculina, o lesbianismo nunca foi definido como crime em termos legislativos; não correspondendo a sua medicalização a qualquer tipo de progresso. Escrita em forma de súplica pelo direito à existência das/dos invertida/os, dirigida à sociedade, The Well of Loneliness não rejeita a heterossexualidade, embora represente o desejo como categoria fluida. Em oposição a Stephen, o protótipo da invertida, Mary Llewellyn significa uma identidade lésbica liberta da classificação da sexologia. Neste estudo, propomos analisar a teoria da inversão sexual e a construção da heterossexualidade como norma nesta obra. Para mais, a representação de personagens secundárias, como Mary ou Valérie, será apresentada como a alternativa ao modelo da sexologia representado por Stephen Gordon.Abstract: Radclyffe Hall’s 1928 novel The Well of Loneliness is considered the one lesbian novel whose title, at least, is familiar to everyone. Since identity and representation influence each other reciprocally as far as cultural practices are concerned, one should ask what kind of lesbian identity is being depicted in this particular novel. Indebted to sexology’s definition of deviant sexuality and an all-pervading idealization of heterosexuality, does this novel allow for a ‘reverse’ discourse as defined by Foucault? Stephen Gordon, the protagonist, is represented in terms of the nineteenth-century sexologist’s female congenital invert notion. Allegedly liberating, since it conceptualised homosexuality as disease instead of sin or crime, the theory of sexual inversion might be seen as extremely damaging in case of female homosexuality. As opposed to male homosexuality, lesbianism never constituted a criminal act, which means that casting it in terms of congenital disease did not comprise any kind of progress. Written as a plea for society’s recognition of the invert’s right to existence, The Well of Loneliness does not reject heterosexuality, although desire is depicted as fluid. In opposition to Stephen, who emerges as the invert’s prototype, Mary Llewellyn signifies a lesbian identity liberated from sexological classifications. This study proposes to analyse the theory of sexual inversion and the construction of heterosexuality as a norm in this novel. Furthermore, the representation of secondary characters, such as Mary and Valérie, will be explored as alternatives to the sexological model represented by Stephen Gordon

A figura da “invertida” congénita em 'The Well of Loneliness' (1928) de Radclyffe Hall e as origens da lésbica “máscula”

Extensamente lido, incessantemente criticado, amado e odiado, o romance The Well of Loneliness (1928), de Radclyffe Hall pode ser considerado um clássico da literatura lésbica. Apesar de ter sido alvo de críticas violentas ao longo dos anos, apresenta a oportunidade de um discurso “em troca” no sentido foucaultiano, dando voz a uma subjectividade homoerótica feminina, a “invertida congénita” dos sexólogos. Uma reflexão sobre o romance The Well é incontornável no quadro dos estudos sobre a representação da identidade e visibilidade lésbicas. Discute-se neste artigo a influência dos discursos da sexologia do século XIX e a problemática do binarismo heterssexista na construção da proto-identidade lésbica contida neste romance

A figura da “invertida” congénita em 'The Well of Loneliness' (1928) de Radclyffe Hall e as origens da lésbica “máscula”

Extensamente lido, incessantemente criticado, amado e odiado, o romance The Well of Loneliness (1928), de Radclyffe Hall pode ser considerado um clássico da literatura lésbica. Apesar de ter sido alvo de críticas violentas ao longo dos anos, apresenta a oportunidade de um discurso “em troca” no sentido foucaultiano, dando voz a uma subjectividade homoerótica feminina, a “invertida congénita” dos sexólogos. Uma reflexão sobre o romance The Well é incontornável no quadro dos estudos sobre a representação da identidade e visibilidade lésbicas. Discute-se neste artigo a influência dos discursos da sexologia do século XIX e a problemática do binarismo heterssexista na construção da proto-identidade lésbica contida neste romance

“Older-wiser-lesbians” and “baby-dykes”: mediating age and generation in New Queer Cinema

Representations of intersections of gender, age, and sexuality can reveal deep-rooted cultural anxieties about older women and sexuality. Images of lesbian ageing are of particular interest in terms of alterity, as the old/er queer woman can combine layers of otherness—not only is she the cultural “other” within heteronormativity, but she can also appear as the opposite of popular culture’s lesbian chic. In this article, a cultural analysis of a range of films—If These Walls Could Talk 2 (dir. Anderson, Coolidge, and Heche 2000), Itty Bitty Titty Committee (dir. Babbit 2007), The Owls (dir. Dunye 2010), Hannah Free (dir. Carlton 2009), and Cloudburst (dir. Fitzgerald 2011)—considers diverse dramatisations of lesbian generations. This article interrogates to what extent alternative cinemas deconstruct normative conceptualisations of ageing. Drawing on recent critiques of post-feminist culture, and a range of feminist and age/ing studies scholarship, it suggests that a linear understanding of ageing and the generational underlies dominant depictions of oppositional binaries of young versus old, of generational segregation or rivalry, and the othering of age. It concludes that non-linear understandings of temporality and ageing contain the potential for New Queer Cinema to counteract such idealisations of youthfulness, which, it argues, is one of the most deep-rooted manifestations of (hetero)normativity