Laura Mulvey’s concept of the "male gaze" remains relevant when analyzing the exclusion of mature women. Cinema has historically valued female performers for their "to-be-looked-at-ness" (Mulvey, 1975), a quality culturally coded as youth. A 2019 study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that of the top 100 grossing films between 2017 and 2019, only 13.2% of female leads were over 40, compared to 42% of male leads (Smith et al., 2020).
: Industry experts note a shift away from the era where actresses in their mid-30s (like Anne Bancroft in The Graduate ) were cast as "older women" opposite men their own age. fee milf pics hot