“This book eloquently and powerfully advances a critical, unrestrained, and subversive aesthetic agenda, resisting the ageist stereotypes that diminish the sexual agency of older women and reclaiming their sensory autonomy.”
— Paul Reynolds, The Open University

★ Proposes the core concept of “unrestrained aesthetics,” critiques age and gender biases, and redefines the erotic and sensory subjectivity of older women.
★ Integrates critical gerontology with feminist theory, employing close readings of artistic and media texts to explore the cultural strategies through which older women resist social normalization.
★ Constructs a novel analytical framework that examines aging, sexuality, and women’s empowerment from the perspective of aesthetic practice, offering insightful theoretical contributions to research on gender in later life.

How can older women, through art and media, resist ageist and sexist norms that regulate their intimate relationships and sexuality? This book places the subversive aesthetic strategies of older women at the center of its inquiry, introducing the concept of “unruly aesthetics” to denote a refusal to conform and an unwillingness to cater to established conventions.
Drawing on critical gerontology, feminist theory, and related critical research traditions, the book constructs a novel conceptual framework that views the aesthetic practices of older women as a force for understanding and transforming society. By integrating theoretical analysis with close readings of artistic works and media texts, it offers a bold and innovative analytical lens for rethinking aging, sexuality, and empowerment.

Katrin De Graeve
Associate Professor of Gender Studies at Ghent University, member of the Centre for Research on Culture and Gender (CRCG) at Ghent University, and Principal Investigator of the European Research Council (ERC)-funded project “Intimacy in Later Life (LiLI).”

Julia Nazarro
Anthropologist, member of the Centre for Research on Culture and Gender (CRCG) at Ghent University, and postdoctoral researcher on the “Intimacy in Later Life (LiLI)” project. From 2019 to 2023, she served as a research fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oxford before joining Ghent University.

1. Introduction
2. Midlife: Rekindling Sisterhood
3. Wisdom, Exuberance, or Confusion: Narratives of Midlife Turning Points
4. From Narratives of Menopausal Suffering to Collective Speaking Out
5. Mapping Desire, Imagining Truth: The Creative Practices of Older Female Artists
6. Conclusion