Essay from the year 2025 in the subject Gender Studies, grade: 1,0, University of Rome "La Sapienza" (ITALIANO DI STUDI ORIENTALI), course: Culture, Gender, Media, language: English, abstract: The essay *"Men age like wine, women age like milk. On the differing evaluation of aging (and body size) depending on gender"* examines how gendered double standards shape the social evaluation of aging and body size in contemporary media culture. Using a popular internet meme comparing Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis in 1986 and 2022 as a case study, the analysis explores how men's aging is culturally framed as dignified and attractive, while women's aging and weight gain are treated as signs of failure and decline.
The theoretical framework draws on Susan Sontag's concept of the "double standard of aging," Sylvia Walby's theory of patriarchy, Rozanova's discourse of "successful aging," and Taylor and Hoskin's work on the intersection of fatness and femininity. These perspectives situate the meme within broader patriarchal structures that systematically privilege men while subjecting women to intensified bodily surveillance and aesthetic expectations.
The analysis demonstrates that aging is not treated as a neutral biological process but as a socially evaluated marker of worth. In Western media culture, "successful aging" is associated with youthfulness, productivity, and self-control. However, these expectations are gendered: masculinity is linked to competence and authority, qualities that are not undermined by age, whereas femininity is culturally tied to youthfulness and thinness. As a result, women's aging is interpreted as a loss of value. The meme reinforces this logic by presenting Cruise's aging as natural and respectable, while McGillis's visible aging and weight gain are implicitly framed as personal shortcomings.
Body size intensifies this inequality. The essay argues that femininity is culturally constructed as small, controlled, and visually pleasing, meaning that larger female bodies are read as excessive and undisciplined. In this way, aging and fatness intersect as mechanisms of gendered control. The meme, though seemingly humorous, functions as a vehicle for circulating and normalizing patriarchal standards. By presenting its message through minimal text and visual contrast, it frames gendered bias as common sense.
Ultimately, the essay concludes that such memes are not harmless jokes but cultural artifacts that reproduce structural inequalities. They contribute to a broader system in which women's worth is tied to youth and thinness, while
