亂時慾望與過時軀體：當代好萊塢電影中的回春女性

Abstract

本論文從近年來好萊塢使用中年女演員演繹年華老去的女巫和邪惡皇后的潮流出發，探討當代好萊塢電影中年華漸長之女性角色。由於平均壽命增長與人口老化，好萊塢選角反映出「年華漸長」的確是當代性別經驗中重要的一環。藉由分析三部以中、老年女性為主要角色的影片：《捉神弄鬼》、《魔法奇緣》、《魔鏡魔鏡》，我主張回春的敘事情節凸顯了不同年齡層女性的經驗，其中不乏性別與年齡歧視。 論文分成五章。第一章回顧近年來年齡研究的發展、女性主義與年齡研究的交集、及「性別年齡歧視」的定義。第二章探討《捉神弄鬼》中兩位回春女性的呈現手法，特別著眼於喜劇元素如何削弱本片的異性戀價值規範。第三章探討《魔法奇緣》中母職之建構，思考母職經驗經常被等同於老化的問題。片中的母女關係亦可被解讀為兩個世代女性之間的關係，其刻劃母女衝突的手法則帶有年齡歧視。第四章研究《魔鏡魔鏡》的年齡意識形態。我藉由探討片中皇后一角與茱莉亞羅勃茲的明星形象，指出「後女性主義」的侷限以及好萊塢電影工業普遍的性別年齡歧視。最後，我回顧幾部更近期的電影，期待未來能有更多電影聚焦年華漸長的女性、打破性別年齡歧視。This thesis aims to examine the ways in which aging women’s experiences are represented through contemporary Hollywood films. I open my thesis by observing a recent trend of employing middle-aged actresses to enact the role of witches and/or wicked queens in Hollywood. Particularly, two films adapted from Grimm Brothers’ “Little Snow White,” both released in 2012, drew my attention to the experiences of aging women. This trend corresponds to the fact that aging has become an essential experience of contemporary people, thanks to prolonged life expectancy as well as population aging. By analyzing the aging women presented in three popular films— Death Becomes Her (1992), Tangled (2010), and Mirror Mirror (2012), I argue that the narratives of rejuvenation bring to the fore aging women’s experiences albeit in collaboration with sexist ageism. This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One provides a general review on the trajectory of age studies, the intersection between age studies and feminism, and the definition of sexist ageism. In Chapter Two, I delve into the representations of two rejuvenating women in Death Becomes Her. By analyzing the comedical style of the film, I suggest that heteronormativity is undermined by the comedical representations of rejuvenated bodies of the two aging women. Chapter Three studies how motherhood is constructed and conflated with aging experience in Tangled. I propose to read the mother-daughter relationship presented in this film as the relations between two generations of women, and indicate that ageism surfaces in the film’s representation of conflicts between mother and daughter. Chapter Four probes the age ideology embodied in Mirror Mirror. By examining the Queen alongside with Julia Roberts’s stardom, I point out the limitations of postfeminism and the sexist ageism inherent in Hollywood stardom. In the concluding chapter, I ponder on the potentials of more recent films and anticipate to see more works complicate the representations of women’s aging experiences and challenge sexist ageism.