Women, Celebrity and Cultures of Ageing (PDF)

Deborah Jermyn is Reader in Film and Television at the University of Roehampton, UK. She has published widely on women, ageing and the media, including articles in CineAction; Critical Studies in Television and Celebrity Studies, and is the editor of Female Celebrity and Ageing: Back in the Spotlight (2013). 
Su Holmes is Reader in Television at the University of East Anglia, UK. She is the author of numerous articles on celebrity and the co-editor of Framing Celebrity (2006); Stardom and Celebrity: A Reader (2007), and In the Limelight and Under the Microscope: Forms and Functions of Female Celebrity (2011). 

“By placing celebrity under the lens of ‘ageing’, Deborah Jermyn and Su Holmes’ edited collection offers a thoughtful, timely and necessary commentary on celebrity in old age that has broader ramifications for understandings of current demographic shifts and the so-called ‘crisis of ageing’. … this book makes an innovative and worthwhile contribution to celebrity, media and film studies as well as to cultural gerontology, and is highly recommended for its insights into the gender/age/celebrity matrix.” (Josephine Dolan, Journal of British Cinema and Television, Vol. 13 (2), April, 2016)

"This collection of essays demonstrates that although female celebrities may be many things for many people, they are all ageing in front of our eyes on our screens and the pages of our newspapers. From the repulsive crone to the sexually alluring icon of style, the images of ageing female celebrities are manifold, as is the vocabulary with which to describe them: spinster, witch, star, diva, artist, role model. This timely book challenges our thinking about these images and words, inviting us to look again at the pathologised or invisible older woman and to listen out for her voice, or examine her sexuality, and identify the complexity of the matrices which extend from questions of femininity, sexuality, race and ageing in celebrity cultures." - Lucy Bolton, Queen Mary, University of London, UK

'Ageing is universal everywhere, eternal, and unchanging. Yet, the meanings of age and how we experience it are under constant negotiation, with media and celebrity culture ever active in charging people to resist being victimized by age or to avoid the consequences of ageing that bad choices yield. Women, Celebrity and Cultures of Ageing brings together a roster of engaging and enlightening scholarly investigations that delve into celebrity, gender, and the meanings of age, in both an historical and contemporary context. From 80-year-old fashionistas to the 'age drag'