The ideal that younger actresses are better than older actresses in Hollywood can be seen by the preferences of the people who are watching movies. Movie spectators display discrimination against older women in Hollywood. A study between 1926-1999 proved that older men in Hollywood had more leading roles than women who were the same age as them.[1] There are many cases where leading actors play the attractive love interest for longer than women.[2] This portrayal of women never aging but men aging can have a negative affect on not only actresses in Hollywood but also women who are not in the media.[2] There are fewer older actresses that get leading roles than young actresses, this promotes the idea that women do not age and that older women are less attractive. This can be harmful to women because they will strive for something that is impossible to have, eternal youth.[2]
An actress in Hollywood may not consider herself old but can be told she is too old for a part. A very well known example of this is what happened to the actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, "she was recently turned down for a role in a movie because she was too old to play the love interest for a 55-year-old man."[3] When a woman is told she is old she can start to believe that she is. A woman can start acting as if she is older than she believes because she internalizes what other people are saying and what they think about her.[4]
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- ^ Young, Skip Dine (2012). Psychology At The Movies. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-470-97177-2.
- ^ a b c Saucier, Maggi G. "Midlife And Beyond: Issues For Aging Women." Journal Of Counseling & Development 82.4 (2004): 420-425. Education Source. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.
- ^ "Maggie Gyllenhaal on Hollywood Ageism: I Was Told 37 Is 'Too Old' for a 55-Year-Old Love Interest". TheWrap. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
- ^ Matthews, Sarah H. (1979). The Social World of Old Women: Managment of Self-Identity. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publicaton. p. 166. ISBN 0-8039-1225-0.