ABSTRACT

¹Netflix show, Grace and Frankie, is significant in its representation of ageing. While it may appear ground-breaking to see people in their seventies and eighties navigating (re)invention of self and sexuality within mainstream media, upon closer inspection–in particular, Season Four–the inherent contradictions common to postfeminist texts are exposed. Initial offerings from Grace and Frankie extend to positive representations of ageing sexuality, female agency, and self-efficacy; however, these themes are rather negated as the seasons progress. Such incongruities feature notions of what might be considered as effective ageing: a dualism in which ageing femininity is both celebrated and fought; discourses of empowerment via rigorous, yet relatively ineffective, corporeal self-maintenance/somatic discipline; a sexualised ‘feminism’ which also features the women as variously alone, but dependent upon their ex-husbands, each other, or their children; and a postfeminist ‘makeover’ paradigm in which the pendulum swings between preservation and restoration, individualism and conformity. Albeit within neoliberal and postfeminist discourses, Grace and Frankie, while flawed, remains an important text in which visibly ageing bodies, ageing sexuality, and non-normative identification are elevated and explored.

摘要

¹ Netflix 节目Grace and Frankie对衰老的表现具有重要意义。虽然看到七八十年代的人们在主流媒体中导航（重新）发明自我和性行为似乎是开创性的，但仔细观察——尤其是第四季——后女权主义文本普遍存在的内在矛盾就会暴露出来。来自Grace 和 Frankie 的初始产品扩展到老年性行为、女性能动性和自我效能的积极表现；然而，随着季节的推进，这些主题都被否定了。这种不协调的特点是可以被视为有效老龄化的概念：一种二元论，在这种二元论中，老龄化的女性气质既受到赞扬又受到反对；通过严格但相对无效的肉体自我维护/躯体纪律来增强权力的话语；一种性化的“女权主义”，其特征还在于女性各不相同，但依赖于她们的前夫、彼此或她们的孩子；以及后女权主义的“改造”范式，在这种范式中，钟摆在保护与恢复、个人主义与从众之间摇摆。尽管在新自由主义和后女权主义话语中，格蕾丝和弗兰基虽然有缺陷，但仍然是一篇重要的文本，在其中提升和探索了明显老化的身体、老化的性行为和非规范的认同。