Return of the Repressed

Zeitgeist or coincidence? Spinifex and Macmillan have both just published novels with middle-aged women centre stage. In marketing terms, they have launched a niche product, targeting the middle-aged female consumer. Poppy’s Return, by New Zealand author Pat Rosier, and West Australian Liz Byrski’s Gang of Four boldly foreground women’s midlife issues. Their protagonists bravely confront the multiple challenges of their own ageing, in addition to the care of elderly relatives.

While these themes are the staple of lifestyle and leisure sections of the media, they have hardly begun to infiltrate the arts. Audiences at writers’ festivals and other cultural events confirm that middle-aged women are a significant, perhaps even predominant, demographic among arts consumers, yet until now our mainstream and popular culture remain youth-oriented. The return of the repressed is overdue, on stage and screen, as well as in fiction. Wrinkles and sagging flesh notwithstanding, the invisible majority want their names in lights, and their stories told back to them.