Abstract
This paper investigates the notion ageing femininity as it is performed within the frame of celebrity culture which privileges youthfulness in beauty and body image. It focuses on the issues of age, the process of ageing, the significance of ageing, the impact of ageing as part of the construction of celebrity identity and femininity. Age[ing] is an important context that female celebrities need to negotiate and embrace the ways in which cultural values need to be considered as well. Looking into the portrayal of the auto/biographical subjects and the visual images used, the paper argues that celebrities negotiate, transform and extend their forms of femininity as they age. Both auto/biographies present their auto/biographical subjects to show the construction of appealing ageing celebrity femininities that are closely linked to the characteristics of the Third Agers, being fit, fashionable, functional and flexible.
Highlights
In this article, I am looking at the auto/biographies of two Indonesian female celebrities, namely Titik Puspa and Lenny Marline
I argue too that the portrayal of the auto/biographical subject in Lenny Marlina’s auto/biography shows Lenny Marlina to be presenting as a number of different women in the year that she was twenty-eight: she is a calm and makeup-free woman as presented in Kartini; a heavily made up and adorned woman who presents a traditional concept of beauty in Sarinah; a sophisticated upperclass woman in Famili; a seductive persona in the clearly codified celebrity/global culture in Vista and Variasi, which are entertainment magazines; and a more “natural” woman in need of making up in Rias (“rias” in English means to put make up on), as dictated by the magazine
In this paper on ageing femininity I have discussed how photographic narratives in the auto/biographies of ageing celebrities can be used as a site where the age of the auto/
Summary
I am looking at the auto/biographies of two Indonesian female celebrities, namely Titik Puspa and Lenny Marline. Keywords ageing femininity; celebrity; beauty; body image; auto/biography
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