Kristyn Gorton – Older Women, Emotion & Affect in US TV Drama

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One Response to “Kristyn Gorton – Older Women, Emotion & Affect in US TV Drama”

  1.   wamjgh Says:
    October 16th, 2008 at    

    Here are the key themes generated in break out session: posted by Ros Jennings

    Older women as transmitters of generational wisdom
    Wisdom concerning heterosexual femininity and women’s relations with men (Ruth in Six Feet Under “Although I was married, I was always alone”).

    Surviving the patriarch (the patriarch dies at beginning of both Six Feet Under and Brothers and Sisters and older women are thrown in to new positions in their lives).
    Emotion is instrumental in the pursuing of generational wisdom from older women.
    Distinction between mother and matriarch.

    Gendered spaces
    Home as womb or tomb. (also liberating or stifling) – the domestic taking on different meanings with age and experience. Generational response to the home – the concept of returning home as opposed to leaving home.

    The home is offered as the prize for the sublimation of desire by the older woman (e.g. Brothers and Sisters).

    Relation to class and leisure.
    Kitchen and key locus in the terratorialisation of wisdom.

    Anthropology of food (emotion, care, ritual)
    Sexualisation (or not) of food (TV chefs – the role of Delia Smith).

    Tension between care and desire

    Youth and sexuality are constructed as problematic for older women. The notion of ‘the mother’ and desire are incompatible.

    Emotion is manipulated to keep older woman in the role of mother even though children are adults (and often mothers themselves).

    Older women who pursue desire must be returned to their socially acceptable roles as women. Fear of sexuality not tied to reproduction.

    All the above result in tensions between mothers and daughters.

    Absences = Images limited to white, heterosexual and able bodied older women.