Too Mature to be Desired? Aging, Desire, and Male Rejection in Celle que vous croyez and Imraʾah fī al-Khamsīn

Vollständiger Abstract

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Abstract This article examines how the protagonists of Celle que vous croyez (2016) by Camille Laurens and Imraʾah fī al-Khamsīn (2015) by Haifa Baitar confront the withdrawal of erotic recognition in female aging. Drawing on feminist gerontology, psychoanalytic theory of recognition, and Turkle’s work on digital identity, it analyzes the strategies these women adopt to negotiate desire, subjectivity, and social acknowledgment. While Laurens’s protagonist retreats into virtual and fictionalized spaces, Baitar’s seeks solidarity among women, highlighting divergent responses to patriarchal and ageist constraints. The article illuminates how aging women’s embodied and mediated experiences challenge, yet remain constrained by, patriarchal ideals of desirability.