Why Is It So Hard To Find A Movie Showing An Older Woman Exercising Power?

By Erica and Karen

For some years, researchers have observed the lack of women over 40 who actually speak in Hollywood films. Let alone who wield power in their cinematic worlds. Or indeed are seen to play any role in the wider world. We were amused by Tina Fey’s comment in her 2014 Oscars monologue, “Meryl Streep is so brilliant in August: Osage County—proving that there are still great parts in Hollywood for Meryl Streeps over 60.”

We like feel-good flicks where older women bond or have romantic flings, but we really would like see movies where older women are doing things. Especially powerful things. (We don’t much care if they are on the side of good or evil, so long as they are intelligent.)

There are some outliers. The brilliant Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri took power into her own hands. The Amazonian warriors in Wonder Woman—especially those who were older, gorgeous and seasoned—were inspirational. (Yes, they were hardly the leading figures in the movie, but the images were forceful.) Helen Mirren, portraying a powerful commander faced with an impossible decision in Eye In The Sky, was at the center of the action.

But these sorts of depictions of older women are few and far between, and films that depict older women in romantic roles are close to nonexistent. (Films featuring men over—even well over—40 and women much younger are not so hard to find.) Is it really so difficult to imagine men happily consorting with women of their own age? Is that because there are so few older people, especially older women, doing the imagining?

And is it impossible for the industry to imagine anyone wanting to see movies with powerful older women in starring roles? That’s also a lack of imagination. Millennial women love seeing older women who are vital and who don’t care what anyone thinks. Why? Because the media tries to convince younger women that they have a sell-by date, after which they will have no value. Those women don’t like that picture of their future, and they like to see evidence of something better, of women who have navigated the shoals and created a satisfying post-50 life. They would be even happier to see older women shown as important players in the world.

And, by the way, we think Millennial men would be pretty excited to imagine a future with women who are their power equals. Especially men who have mothers like the women of Lustre.

Hollywood, it’s time to get the picture straight. Welcome to the twenty-first century!