Sexual pleasure in older age: haptic visuality and female eroticism in three contemporary Spanish films

Abstract

This article explores the representation of female sexuality in later life through the lens of three contemporary Spanish films: La vida era eso (2020), Destello bravío (2021), and Mamacruz (2023). Drawing from feminist aging studies, film theory, and concepts such as haptic visuality and clitoral sexuality, the study challenges the patriarchal, ageist, and phallocentric narratives that have long shaped cultural understandings of older women's erotic lives. Through close readings of these films, the article demonstrates how they subvert the dominant heteronormative gaze by foregrounding sensory pleasure, autoeroticism, and the reawakening of desire in older women. By rejecting decline-based models of aging and embracing affirmative aging, these cinematic works offer empowering portrayals of aging female bodies as sites of autonomy, transformation, and erotic potential. The analysis highlights how these films resist traditional representations of female aging and sexuality, creating new feminist haptic visual languages that center pleasure, agency, and the richness of life in older age.