Women over 50 make love. A reality of astonishing simplicity, which, however, is not self-evident, so strong is the “invisibilization” of those who physiologically no longer have procreative capacity. And yet. Representing 14 million people in our country, women over 50 live, love, and cohabit. A sexual practice which represents the “ultimate taboo”, according to Marie Charrel, author of Who’s afraid of old people? (Pocket book).
The essayist and journalist at World returns in this work to the exclusion from society of those over fifty, whether in the cinema, in the media or on the catwalks. And the embarrassment, even disgust, inspired by the sexuality of menopausal women, who no longer have periods for younger people.
Sexism and ageism
Marie Charrel is the guest of “ Everything is explained », the weekly podcast from the editorial staff of 20 minutes who is interested in sexuality and society. In this interview, the author evokes the bodies of aging women, devalued, “forgotten”, but also the “frightening freedom” of those who are less scrutinized by society.
Why does the aging woman, who has desire, cause embarrassment? The author takes, in her essay, the example of a scene from the film Shining, by Stanley Kubrick (1980). The main character Jack Torrance, played on screen by Jack Nicholson, discovers a young woman naked in a bathroom. Seduced, he approaches and then kisses her, but discovers that the sylph has transformed into a half-rotten old woman. Jack Torrance pushes her away, while the monster chases him with sardonic laughter. Horror ! Marie Charrel asks: “Why did this old woman have to inspire so much fear? »
The character of the monstrous, crazy, even psychopathic old woman is, moreover, reminiscent of Slatea cliché in horror films, which is entitled to its subgenre: “hagsploitation” (“hag” meaning in English “old skin” or “old witch”).
Listen to Marie Charrel about the invisibility of women over 50, and about the “ultimate taboo” that their sexuality represents. Good listening.
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