Grandma's Closet

A young girl sits on the floor of her living room, entrhalled with the princess on her television screen, the model gracing a page in her magazine, the doll whose hair she combs with her fingertips. She watches, flips, plays. These female figures resemble the exact image you have already curated in your mind: tall, thin, and, of course, young. It's no wonder, then, that the rhetoric surrounding the fashion industry and representations of beauty in modern media speaks about the implications of these high standards for women in relation to young girls.

But, let's go back to that opening scene. Behind the girl sits her grandmother; she watches the screen, looks at the magazine, sees the doll, and doesn't find any female figures that represent her as an older woman. They are tall, thin, and only young.

The fashion industry has faced incredible scrutiny over the past decade as experts, media personnel, and citizens at large continue to criticize too-thin bodies, poreless skin, and a plethora of other physical characteristics that contribute to unrealistic hegemonic beauty standards for women. In relation to this point of interest, the central focus has typically been the impact of such beauty standards on the young female, with little conversation surrounding its effects on elderly women. Grandma's Closet explores just this, with a focus on eating disorers among the older population of women, and American media's anti-aging rhetoric.