#aginginhollywood

[trendsfocus]

Recent photos of Michael Vartan have gone viral, reminding fans how much time has passed since the Alias era.

Once a defining face of early-2000s TV, Vartan has chosen a private life away from Hollywood — and his reappearance has sparked conversations about aging, nostalgia, and what it means to step away from fame.

[flamingpie40-blog]

“I hope I die before I get old”: Women and aging in Hollywood

What is it about getting older that is so frightening to our society? Are we going to lose friends and family if we develop wrinkles and grey hair? Is it the beginning of the end? What happens when we, especially women, are constantly bombarded with images from Hollywood and other media that claim to have the secret to the anti-aging Holy Grail? While women of all careers and classes in America might feel varying degrees of the pressure to look youthful (therefore more beautiful and valued), I will focus my posts on how women on the silver screens of Hollywood are not allowed to age in the same way that their male co-stars are. What does this say about beauty expectations in the industry, and how does it translate into society in general?

The natural process of aging has been vilified, especially for women. They might fear that with age, they could lose someone’s love for them. Increased age might bring very-real internal health concerns--are they going to become dependent on others? While concerns like these could happen to anyone regardless of gender, where could ideas about being ‘less capable’, ‘less valued’ in society have stemmed from if women embrace getting older? Women are constantly told by media and other pop culture formats that a lot of their power comes from their sex appeal, or their youthfulness, or beauty. Showing yourself as young equates to showing yourself as powerful, full-of-life. One source that constantly promotes this thinking is Hollywood. Analyses of popular American movies from Tinseltown have mapped the ages of male and female actors in these films, and have shown that as actors like Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Denzel Washington, and Robert DeNiro are allowed to age and still appear in movies, while their female co-stars don’t seem to be aging at all (meaning that as female actors get older, it might be harder to find the same type of roles as before). Older men can still claim the sexiness of age, while their on-screen female counterparts stay mostly under the big 4-0. The following posts are meant to analyze these age trends in Hollywood, and show that perhaps age is way more than just a number.

[therealcelebtv-blog]

RENEE ZELLWEGER Unrecognizable!