Aging Heroes: Growing Old in Popular Culture

269 Pages·2015·1.64 MB·English

by  Norma Jones, Bob Batchelor (eds.)

Aging Heroes
Aging Heroes

Growing Old in Popular Culture

Edited by
Norma Jones
Bob Batchelor

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Aging heroes : growing old in popular culture / edited by Norma Jones and Bob Batchelor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-5006-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-5007-9 (ebook)
1. Older people in mass media. 2. Older people in popular culture. 3. Heroes in mass media. I. Jones,
Norma, 1972- editor. II. Batchelor, Bob.
P94.5.A38A55 2015
305.26—dc23
2014049733

TM
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America
Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Bad Abides: Jeff Bridges, Ideal Aging Hero
Bob Batchelor and Norma Jones

I: On the Silver Screen: Aging Heroes in Film Genres
1 Twilight Heroes: Old Age and Unfinished Business in Four
“Heartland” Films
Cynthia J. Miller
2 Golden Agers, Recluses, and John Wayne: Aging Stereotypes
and Aging Heroes in Movie Westerns
Mei-Chen Lin and Paul Haridakis
3 AAADRRIAAN! I’ll Be Baaaaaack!: Schwarzenegger and
Stallone as Aging Action Heroes
Norma Jones
4 Under the Wide and Starry Sky: Hollywood and Aging
Astronauts, 1996–2000
A. Bowdoin Van Riper

II: Diversity Concerns: Sexuality, Race, and Gender
5 Queering Aging?: Representations of Liberace’s Intimate Life in
HBO’s Behind the Candelabra
Gust A. Yep, Ryan Lescure, and Jace Allen
6 Overcoming the Villainous Monster: The Beginnings of Heroic
Gay Male Aging
Dustin Bradley Goltz

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vi Contents

7 The Power of Performance: Tyler Perry’s Madea as Village
Sage and Superwoman
Carlos D. Morrison, Jacqueline Allen Trimble, and Ayoleke D.
Okeowo
8 “Not Bad for an Abuela, Eh?”: The Representation of the Power
of Age in Maya & Miguel
Emily S. Kinsky and Amanda Gallagher
9 Babes and Crones: Women Growing Old in Comics
Caryn E. Neumann

III: Being a Man? Masculinity and Aging Heroes
10 Aging Masculinity in Popular Culture: The Case of Mad Men’s
Roger Sterling
Patrice M. Buzzanell and Suzy D’Enbeau
11 Aging Superheroes: Retirement and Return in Kingdom Come
and Old Man Logan
Nathan Miczo
12 Mr. Incredible, Man of Action, Man of Power: What If He Loses
It All?
Itır Erhart and Hande Eslen-Ziya
13 “He Has to Be Good. The Airline Won’t Settle for Less.”:
Gender, Age, and the Trope of the Male Pilot in Advertising
Guilliaume de Syon

IV: Real to Reel: Individuals Aging on and off the Screen
14 Helen Mirren and the Media Portrayals of Aging: Women’s
Sexuality Concealed and Revealed
Barbara Cook Overton, Athena du Pré, and Loretta L.
Pecchioni
15 Hellraiser, Dandy, Eccentric: The Evolving Star Persona of
Peter O’Toole in the 1980s and Beyond
Anna Thompson Hajdik
16 The Betty White Moment: The Rhetoric of Constructing Aging
and Sexuality
Kathleen M. Turner
17 The Recharacterization of Age and the Aging Bricoleur: Danny
Trejo’s Reinvention of Aging in Acting
Salvador Jimenez-Murguia

Index

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Contents

About the Editors and Contributors

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239