Abstract
© 2023, [Taylor and Francis Group]. The attached document (embargoed until 14/05/2025) is an author produced version of a paper published in New Review of Film and Television Studies uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.
The trope of an older woman desiring a satisfying sexual experience is common enough in film to merit a generic label of its own: Sex and the (Older) Single Girl, to paraphrase Helen Gurley Brown. Commonly incorporated in this genre is not only a sense of regret and the ebbing of time, but a determination to experience sexual fulfilment - even (and especially) if one must pay for it. For these ageing (often white) women, locating a space to find sexual satisfaction necessitates a break from the everyday, a flight from home and its delimiting attendant feminine identities. As such, hotels - which are imbued with a sexualised energy for many who pass through their doors - represent a particularly intensified location to act upon desire.
These anonymised spaces facilitate unusual layers of candour and honesty and thus become laden with emotional weight, as well as comic potential. In this article, we examine the transformative power of the hotel and hotel sex, most specifically for the older single woman in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Hyde, 2022). Here, retired teacher Nancy (Emma Thompson), who has never experienced orgasm, engages the services of 27-year-old sex-worker, Leo (Daryl McCormack). Blending familiar generic elements of the romcom with the sex-tourist drama, the film utilises the liminal space of the hotel to explore gendered and raced questions around ageing, desire and power.
The trope of an older woman desiring a satisfying sexual experience is common enough in film to merit a generic label of its own: Sex and the (Older) Single Girl, to paraphrase Helen Gurley Brown. Commonly incorporated in this genre is not only a sense of regret and the ebbing of time, but a determination to experience sexual fulfilment - even (and especially) if one must pay for it. For these ageing (often white) women, locating a space to find sexual satisfaction necessitates a break from the everyday, a flight from home and its delimiting attendant feminine identities. As such, hotels - which are imbued with a sexualised energy for many who pass through their doors - represent a particularly intensified location to act upon desire.
These anonymised spaces facilitate unusual layers of candour and honesty and thus become laden with emotional weight, as well as comic potential. In this article, we examine the transformative power of the hotel and hotel sex, most specifically for the older single woman in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Hyde, 2022). Here, retired teacher Nancy (Emma Thompson), who has never experienced orgasm, engages the services of 27-year-old sex-worker, Leo (Daryl McCormack). Blending familiar generic elements of the romcom with the sex-tourist drama, the film utilises the liminal space of the hotel to explore gendered and raced questions around ageing, desire and power.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | New Review of Film and Television Studies |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 14 Nov 2023 |
Keywords
- ageing women
- older sexuality
- sex work
- hotel sex
- liminality