Ageing Like A Fine Wine: Female Celebrity'S Body And Ageing Well Discourse On Instagram

Many people are afraid of ageing, especially women. The society expects women to always maintain their physical appearance throughout the ages. Therefore, women who show signs of ageing are stigmatized while women who are youthful are glorified by society. We can see this condition from the public’s view of the physical appearance of senior female celebrities which is appreciated as an example of successful ageing or ageing well. This study explores the visual discourse of femininity over the age of 50 which emerges from the Instagram accounts of female celebrities, namely Sophia Latjuba (@sophia_latjuba88), Ira Wibowo (@irawbw), and Donna Harun (@donnaharunofficial). Critical multimodal discourse analysis was conducted on images (posts) and texts (captions) to reveal dominant themes and rhetorical elements inherent in the femininity of senior female celebrities. The concepts of representation, body and femininity, ageism, and social media are used to analyze alternatives discourse related to ageing femininity as a form of power rather than an attempt to fulfill sexist and ageist expectations about women's appearance. For further discussion, this research situates social media as an arena for alternative discourse to challenge normative body discourse and ageing standards that have been developing in our society.