{"id":12834,"date":"2021-10-29T10:50:10","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T10:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schspin.stieve.com\/?p=12834"},"modified":"2021-11-29T15:42:29","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T15:42:29","slug":"alte-frauen-sichtbarkeit-teil-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schspin.stieve.com\/gb\/2021\/10\/29\/alte-frauen-sichtbarkeit-teil-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Women. Visibility. Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was standing at the checkout in an organic supermarket. The cashier asked the customer in front of me if she had a student card – that must have given her a discount. The woman went completely berserk with pleasure for having been mistaken for a student. She was wearing a mask of course and a beanie, but from her eyes, among other things, I would have guessed she was easily in her late 30s or early 40s. Anyway. She was beaming all over, “This is the most beautiful thing I’m going to experience today!” It was 10:45 a.m.. What a prospect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hardly anyone wants to be old<\/strong>, people are turning 60 years young<\/strong><\/em>, old<\/strong> has become a dirty word. Actually, not always, in German. There\u2018s the phrase \u201eWas geht ab, Alter?\u201c \/ “What’s up, dude?” – originally from youth language. Alter (dude) literally translates to old man. I’ve never heard the word “Alte” (old woman) in a similar context. Have you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Old Women, visible. In Film and Television. <\/span><\/h1>\n

Being thought of as younger is enormously important for many people.<\/strong> Not only for women, by the way, but especially for them, because youth mania with everything that goes with it, partly presented by society, partly by the media, leaves its mark. The Hamburg-based initiative Pink Stinks<\/strong> (“Magazine, campaign office and an educational organisation against sexism.”) has been addressing the connection<\/a> between a format like GERMANY’S NEXT TOP MODEL and slimness mania up to bulimia among young female viewers for years. <\/span><\/p>\n

Age and eternal youth are also topics in the film and television industry. If a – famous – actress is over 50 or 60 or 70, it is always emphasised that she looks at least ten, if not twenty years younger. Famous older actresses play much younger roles (e.g. still a pregnant woman at 53), which – if you didn’t know their age \u2013 they could often pass as, because they work on their appearance and \/ or have it worked on and look tremendous. When older actresses like Iris Berben<\/span><\/strong>, Senta Berger<\/span><\/strong> or Hannelore Elsner<\/span><\/strong> once showed a grey hair in a role, it was highlighted as a special achievement. <\/span><\/p>\n

Getting our headshots done is not cheap and a big deal, before and in between the hair and make-up is done and changed and the results are digitally done over afterwards. (I’ve been an actress for so long that I still remember photo sessions without a make-up artist present…). <\/span><\/p>\n

Actresses are predominantly very fit, slim to very slim, – Marlene Dietrich<\/span><\/strong> is credited with the quote: “Being an actress means always leaving the table hungry.<\/em>” They are slim and wrinkle-free, and for the most part they stay that way as they age. Unlike women outside the acting industry. And men. Normally, as they age, they all put on a little weight around the hips, bags under the eyes become more prominent, chins softer, voices darker, hair whiter and thinner. For women, this can be related to the menopause, but for everyone it can also be related to a change in metabolism – we need less food, i.e. if we eat the same amount as before, we gain weight, or a change in lifestyle or whatever. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is not the case with actresses. If they have to grow older, then at least they shouldn’t be visible. In more ways than one.<\/strong> They 1) don’t look like ‘normal women’ who age. But 2) they still appear on screen much less than their colleagues of the same age, who often look much older and are sometimes chubbier. And there is also a third factor: although actresses look young and younger, female roles are often cast even younger, a 40-year-old is played by a 30 to 35-year-old, etc. etc. <\/span><\/p>\n

And when older women are the centre of a German TV film, the parts are often written unrealistically, they live in very well to do circumstances, in fancy houses or villas, are expensively and fashionably and always impeccably dressed, without any creases in their garments. One of the only few exceptions I can think of is Barbara Morawiecz<\/span> <\/strong>as the very touching Mrs. Wernicke in the Berlin Tatort HITCHCOCK UND FRAU WERNICKE (2010). She plays a pensioner who lives in a rented flat. Morawiecz<\/strong> was 71 years old when the film was shot. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, public television still argues very strongly with the alleged will of the audience – as evidenced by “TV ratings”. And the makers interpret who the viewers supposedly want to see and what they don’t want to see. I think this a quite wrong and even dangerous approach, but that\u2018s a topic for another day. <\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve written about this many times already: <\/span><\/p>\n

SchspIN and Age Research <\/span><\/h2>\n

Actresses who pass 40 have fewer job opportunities (in film, TV and streaming) than their male colleagues, simply because there are far fewer roles for women.<\/strong> Also as voice actresses dubbing films, because this is not only the case in Germany (ageism). <\/span><\/p>\n

This professional reality, which I am also affected by, was one of the reasons to start my analyses and this blog in 2013; I\u2018ve examined it again and again with random samples and also written about age phenomena among women and men in front of the camera in other ways. Here is a selection of articles: <\/span><\/p>\n