Mind the gender age gap: where are the ‘woman of a certain age’ in Barbieland and beyond?

As a rule, I try to avoid the rabbit holes where you ‘just wonder’ about something, dive into ‘a bit of research’ and before you know it, the wine bottle is empty, the room dark, and the dog is staring at you dejectedly still waiting for walkies. 

But so it went when I idly wondered how old the actors in the Barbie were. No big deal. It’s a ‘feminist movie’ after all, so probably nothing to worry about. It starts with perfect-woman Margot Robbie at 33 matched with hunky shmunky male Ryan Gosling at 42. 

While some of the Kens are admittedly in their thirties, none of the Barbies make it to 40.

Male cast members include John Cena, 46, Scott Evans, 40, and Rob Brydon, 58 (though the latter is admittedly Sugar Daddy Ken), while Dua Lipa and Emma Mackay are in their twenties, President Barbie is 38, disillusioned old mum-of-teenager America Ferrera, 39, and even ‘old’ Weird Barbie Kate McKinnon is just 39.

And while some of the Kens (Kingsley Ben-Adir and Simu Lui) are admittedly in their thirties, none of the Barbies make it to 40. It’s down to essentially dead Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman, 75) and the ‘old woman on the bench’ (Ann Roth, 91) to bring up the average female cast age. 

Above: Tina Fey and other screen legends in the Amy Schumer sketch “men are fuckable forever”.

It follows the depressingly familiar narrative that men improve their sex symbol status with age, whilst women become old dears. Think Sally Field, only ten years older than Tom Hanks, playing his mum in Forrest Gump. Or Angelina Jolie, just one year older than Colin Farrell, playing his mum in Alexander. As they say in a classic Amy Schumer sketch, “men are fuckable forever”.

The median age for male actors is 61.3 and for female actors 39.8.

And the statistics attest to it. I was genuinely gobsmacked to discover that the median age for male actors is 61.3 and for female actors 39.8. Apparently, women make up around a third of the acting profession and men the remaining two thirds, so it’s not a huge surprise that 80 per cent of films feature more male than female actors.

What about the world of advertising? How have we done there? As couples go (and domestic slavery aside), not scandalously badly. In the early 70s, the R. Whites Secret Lemonade Drinker Julian Chagrin was twelve years older than his ‘wife’ Harriet Philpin; later that decade, Leonard Rossiter clocked in at seven years older than Joan Collins in the Cinzano ads; in the 80s Oxo Family mum Linda Bellingham was only five years younger than Michael Redfern; thrillingly, Sharon Maughan was actually four years older than Anthony Head in The Nescafé Gold Blend, 90’s ads. But none of those women were in their 50s.

And today, I find it almost impossible to find ads targeted at me that don’t mention menopause, wrinkles, greying or cruise holidays. The only advert that has bothered to have genuine insight and empathy for me in the last five years is Tena’s #LastLonelyMenopause, and that was written specifically for Channel 4s Diversity Awards to rectify adland’s cultural blindspot. 

This Virgin Cruises spot starring Jennifer Lopez is one of the few to offer a reasonable representation of a 50+ woman.

The only ad I found that made me think differently about a brand targeted at me was Virgin Cruises’ (yup, a cruise) Jen AI starring Jennifer Lopez, 54.

While I love the Jane Fondas, Helen Mirrens, 78, and Judi Denches, 88, of this world, it does feel that these kinds of people are wheeled out across various categories to do the collective job of nailing the over 50 female audience.

Some of today’s brands do make an effort. L’Oreal has a wonderfully diverse range of ambassadors, from Elle Fanning, 25, to Jane Fonda, 85, with an average age of 44. M&S, with a traditional customer base of 55+ has famously featured Twiggy, Helen Mirren, Annie Lennox and Emma Thompson.

And while I love the Jane Fondas, Helen Mirrens, 78, and Judi Denches, 88, of this world, it does feel that these kinds of people are wheeled out across various categories to do the collective job of nailing the over 50 female audience as a lazy default.

Are we embarrassed about the real thing? Ads that are supposed to be targeted at us either have women in their 30s and 40s with artfully greying hair OR they have women who are stereotypes of the 1970s version of a middle-aged woman – frumpy, frail or marginalised. 

Only 12 per cent of UK ads featured someone over 50 in a leading role and two thirds of those were men. 

Yeah, I’m menopausal, and I’m not ashamed of that. But menopause isn’t who I am, it’s just a stage I’m going through. Where are all the real women in their 50s or even 60s? We have libidos and plenty of spare cash, we’re digitally savvy and like going out and living our lives. The over 50 age group makes up nearly 50 per cent of the adult population in the UK, and accounts for the lion’s share of spend in all categories, including fashion. 

Yet a 2022 study by the CreativeX/Geena Davis Institute partnership reported that only 12 per cent of UK ads featured someone over 50 in a leading role and two thirds of those were men.