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Ageing Women in Literature and Visual Culture pp 129–145Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Stories of Motherhood and Ageing in ABC’s Television Programme Once Upon a Time

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Abstract

Feasey (2012), Karlyn (2011) and Kaplan (1992) assert that as motherhood is reimagined and past practices are abandoned, the mothering of previous generations is framed as dated, harmful and insufficient. Building from these remarks, this chapter considers how the first two seasons of ABC’s television programme Once Upon a Time (2011–present) represents ageing women as mothers. The chapter demonstrates how the characters’ mothering facilitates a storyline where older values (and the older woman) must be abandoned for characters to gain social acceptance in the programme. Centrally, this paper argues that the programme perpetuates the idealisation of youth and maintains a narrative of the devil woman as crone through the characters’ embodiment of contemporary post-feminist expectations of motherhood.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Berridge (2010), Creeber (2004), Corner (1999), Holland (1997) and Kozloff (1992).

  2. 2.

    Dunleavy (2009) has since asserted, and I would agree, that the serial’s overarching story has “no prescribed length and can be either ‘open’ (potentially never-ending) or ‘closed’ (resolving within a limited number of episodes)” (51), or as I would contend, at the end of a season.

  3. 3.

    Jowett and Abbott (2013), Berridge (2010), Dunleavy (2009), Mittell (2006), Hammond and Mazdon (2005) and Creeber (2004).

  4. 4.

    Jowett and Abbott (2013), Dunleavy (2009), Mittell (2006), Hammond and Mazdon (2005) and Creeber (2004).

  5. 5.

    Such as Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle), Cinderella (Jessy Schram) and Belle (Emilie de Ravin) to name a few.

  6. 6.

    The actresses’ ages when the programme first aired.

  7. 7.

    Jermyn (2014), King (2013), Segal (2013), Whelehan (2013) and Jennings (2012).

  8. 8.

    Feasey (2012), Karlyn (2011), Diffrient and Lavery (2010) and Calvin (2008).

  9. 9.

    Feasey (2012), Karlyn (2011), Diffrient and Lavery (2010) and Calvin (2008).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Katherine Whitehurst

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  1. Katherine Whitehurst
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Correspondence to Katherine Whitehurst .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Researcher, Limerick, Ireland

    Cathy McGlynn

  2. Gender ARC, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Margaret O'Neill

  3. Languages, Literatures and Cultures, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Michaela Schrage-Früh

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Whitehurst, K. (2017). Stories of Motherhood and Ageing in ABC’s Television Programme Once Upon a Time . In: McGlynn, C., O'Neill, M., Schrage-Früh, M. (eds) Ageing Women in Literature and Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63609-2_8

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