Facing exclusion in neoliberal times: technologies of the self of older women in the series Grace and Frankie

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the representation of temporalities that govern the lives of older women in the series Grace and Frankie . Using the method of semiotic discourse analysis, it explores how the series’ main characters react to neoliberal temporality as it is manifested in old women’s lives. Drawing on Michel Foucault 1988 theoretical framework, we show that the two protagonists, Grace and Frankie, use a variety of technologies of the self that help them cope with power mechanisms that push them to the margins of social time, thus increasing their degrees of freedom vis-à-vis these mechanisms. By unpacking the different technologies of the self that are manifested in each character’s actions as well as in their relationships, we argue that the series identifies contemporary options for old women to deal with the contradictions that neoliberal culture generates between being an autonomous subject and being an old woman.