ABSTRACT
Film actresses tend to receive lower pay, fewer roles, and less dialogue beginning in their early to mid-30s, while the same is not true of actors. In this chapter, we highlight the importance of intersectionality, the interconnections between perceptions and experiences of different social categories, such as race and ethnicity, gender, age, and sexual orientation, to understanding phenomena such as this. Intersectionality can take different forms including multiple disadvantage, stereotype buffering, and subgrouping. And, particularly in the case of age, these interconnections endure and can magnify over time. Theories such as cumulative advantage, cumulative disadvantage, and cumulative inequality provide a framework for understanding changes in ageism over the life course.
