Performing Arts, History & Criticism, Aging, Gerontology, Popular Culture 

Despite the increasing number and variety of older characters appearing in film, television, comics, and other popular culture, much of the understanding of these figures has been limited to outdated stereotypes of aging. These include depictions of frailty, resistance to modern life, and mortality. More importantly, these stereotypes influence the daily lives of aging adults, as well as how younger generations perceive and interact with older individuals. In light of our graying population and the growing diversity of portrayals of older characters in popular culture, it is important to examine how we understand aging. In Aging Heroes: Growing Old in Popular Culture, Norma Jones and Bob Batchelor present a collection of essays that address the increasing presence of characters that simultaneously manifest and challenge the accepted stereotypes of aging. The contributors to this volume explore representations in television programs, comic books, theater, and other forms of media. The chapters include examinations of aging male and female actors who take on leading roles in such movies as Gran Torino, Grudge Match, Escape Plan, Space Cowboys, Taken, and The Big Lebowski as well as The Expendables, Red, and X-Men franchises. Other chapters address perceptions of masculinity, sexuality, gender, and race as manifested by such cultural icons as Superman, Wonder Woman, Danny Trejo, Helen Mirren, Betty White, Liberace, and Tyler Perry's Madea. With multi-disciplinary and accessible essays that encompass the expanding spectrum of aging and related stereotypes, this book offers a broader range of new ways to understand, perceive, and think about aging. Aging Heroes will be of interest to scholars of film, television, gender studies, women's studies, sociology, aging studies, and media studies, as well as to general readers. 

Contents:
Introduction: on the silver screen: aging heroes in film genres
Twilight heroes: old age and unfinished business in four "Heartland" films / Cynthia J. Miller
Golden agers, recluses and John Wayne: aging stereotypes and aging heroes in movie westerns / Mei-Chen Lin and Paul Haridakis
Aaadrriaan! I'll be baaaaaack! Schwarzenegger and Stallone as aging action heroes / Norma Jones
Under the wide and starry sky: Hollywood and aging astronauts, 1996-2000 / A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Diversity concerns: sexuality, race and gender. Queering aging? representations of Liberace's intimate life in HBO's Behind the candelabra / Gust A. Yep, Ryan Lescure, and Jace Allen
Overcoming the villainous monster: the beginnings of heroic gay male aging / Dustin Bradley Goltz
The power of performance: Tyler Perry's Madea as village sage and superwoman / Carlos D. Morrison, Jacqueline Allen Trimble, and Ayoleke D. Okeowo
"Not bad for an abuela, eh?": the representation of the power of age in Maya & Miguel / Emily S. Kinsky and Amanda Gallagher
Babes and crones: women growing old in comics / Caryn E. Neumann
Being a man? masculinity and aging heroes. Aging masculinity in popular culture: the case of Mad men's Roger Sterling / Patrice M. Buzzanell and Suzy D'Enbeau
Aging superheroes: retirement and return in Kingdom come and Old man Logan / Nathan Miczo
Mr. incredible, the man-of-action, the man-of-power: what if he loses it all? / It'r Erhart and Hande Eslen-ziya
"He has to be good. The airline won't settle for less": gender, age, and the trope of the male pilot in advertising / Guilliaume De Syon
Real to reel: individuals aging on and off the screen. Helen Mirren and the media portrayals of aging: women's sexuality concealed and revealed / Barbara Cook Overton, Athena Du Pré, and Loretta l. Pecchioni
Hellraiser, dandy, eccentric: the evolving star persona of Peter O'Toole in the 1980s and beyond / Anna Thompson Hajdik
The Betty White moment: the rhetoric of constructing aging and sexuality / Kathleen Turner
The re-characterization of age and the aging bricoleur: Danny Trejo's reinvention of aging in acting / Salvador Jimenez-Murguia