Visual representations of older women in European graphic novels: Moving away from illness and decrepitude?

This article examines representations of aging female bodies and sexuality in two contemporary Franco-Belgian graphic novels: Le Plongeon (2018) by Séverine Vidal and Victor Pinel and L'Obsolescence programmée de nos sentiments (2021) by Zidrou and Aimée de Jongh. While the scholarship on aging in comics has focused primarily on narratives of illness, decline, or intergenerational care, much less attention has been given to depictions of older women's desire and erotic agency. Our analysis sets these works within the long-standing Franco-Belgian comics tradition, where women over sixty are rarely to be found as central characters. By comparing two protagonists at different stages of later life – one in her sixties, the other in her eighties– we explore how the graphic novel as a multimodal form engages ambivalently with cultural anxieties about aging, sexuality, and visibility. We argue that these works both challenge and reproduce dominant imaginaries of female sexuality and desire in old age, hinging our analysis in theories by Kathleen Woodward, Margaret Gullette, and Lynne Segal with the aim of offering a fertile ground for analyzing the intersections of gender, body, and temporality in contemporary European comics. • The selected works both challenge and perpetuate traditional narratives of aging and address stereotypes about older women. • They challenge traditional views of female aging and embodiment yet also perpetuate ideals of youthful iconography. • The older female body can be admired, desired and engage in sexual experiences. • The multimodal nature of graphic narratives enables the visual side to embody and materialize the textual discourse.