‘Bizarre Sapphic midlife crisis’: (Re)thinking LGBTQ representation, age and mental health

Abstract

This article looks at viewers’ responses to the romance between two older women on the BBC medical drama Holby City. In the context of a continuing lack of representation of (older) women-loving women, viewers of all ages describe a transformative experience, with an emphasis on positive mental health outcomes – yet older women also orient to something implicitly problematic about this being the case. This is premised, I suggest, in the foregrounding of youth and adolescence in academic and public discussions of the role of the media in sexual self-realisation. The research demonstrates the need for qualitative case studies capturing LGBTQ portrayals, taking account of the experiences of older viewers, and of network television even in a fragmented and queer(er) digital market.