For Your Consideration: Believe women
While Alexa Demie is best known for her role as Maddy Perez, the bold cheerleader with a flawless rhinestone cat eye on HBO’s “Euphoria,” the actress can also transcend time and space. According to Twitter, Demie witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, posed for the Mona Lisa painting and escaped on a lifeboat from the Titanic all while dressed in her iconic two-piece set.
“She has lived a thousand lives,” read the viral tweet that inspired these memes showing seemingly dated pictures of Demie standing alongside the Kardashian sisters, Grimes, Sky Ferreira and Azealia Banks. The tweet called into question Demie’s actual age, which multiple outlets reported as 24 during the “Euphoria” press tour in 2019. A resurfaced alumni list from her high school claiming that she graduated in 2008, which would make her 29 or 30, added to the speculation.
Although these are just allegations, Demie’s “timelessness” swept Twitter as fans expressed their shock over how young she looks for 30. While I realize Demie is just another celebrity swept up in a fleeting internet conspiracy, the fixation on her being 25 versus 30 points to a larger issue of ageism in Hollywood.
If Demie did lie about her age, I can’t blame her. According to a 2015 Time magazine study, actresses reach their professional pinnacle at age 30 but quickly see opportunities for roles decline as they approach middle age. Conversely, actors experience the peak of their careers at age 46 and often work with younger female leads. By fudging a few years, Demie may have bought herself more time as a young starlet before she hits the ripe old age of 35. Not to mention, Demie is also Mexican American, making it even more difficult for her to secure roles.
The Demie Twitter frenzy is in a similar vein as ageist online responses to Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s Super Bowl halftime show in January. Rather than focusing on their performance that paid homage to Latinx culture, many Twitter users fixated on Lopez’s physique as a woman in her 50s.
Lopez is an entertainer. Her job is to maintain her appearance and stay fit for performances by keeping to a strict diet and exercise regimen. So, of course, Lopez looks incredible, but then again, she’s been a dancer for over 30 years. But the shock over Lopez’s ability to perform well despite being “middle-aged” reflects the assumptions people make about women over 50. In our youth-obsessed culture, we rarely see depictions of older women as desirable. Lopez’s performance challenged this ageist notion by embracing her physicality on stage with revealing outfits and elaborate choreography.
Lopez’s age also became the focal point of “Hustlers” discourse. Despite Lopez’s performance as Ramona Vega, the seasoned stripper who devised a scam to steal thousands of dollars from her clients, being one of the best of her career, social media fixated on her body and “surprising” beauty as an older woman.
This ageist dialogue concerning Demie and Lopez has been described by 88-year-old Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno of “West Side Story” fame, who complained in a 2014 Variety interview about facing a trifecta of discrimination in Hollywood.
“All my life I faced sexism and racism and then when I hit 40, ageism,” Moreno said.
As she’s gotten older, Moreno struggled to find consistent roles until being cast in the “One Day at a Time” revival, which follows a Cuban American family.
Demographic data contradicts negative conceptions of aging in the Latinx community. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Latinx Americans enjoy a longer life expectancy of 81.8 years compared to 78.8 years for non-Latinx white people. Despite enduring discrimination and lower rates of health insurance, Latinx people experience longevity in their lives. Researchers deem this the “Hispanic paradox,” as they are perplexed over how Latinx peoples’ socioeconomic disadvantages aren’t connected to shorter lives like for other racial and ethinc groups.
Considering these findings and the fact that Latinx people are projected to represent 29% of the population in 2050, Hollywood must begin to develop substantive roles for older Latinx people, even those without Lopez’s body or Demie playing a younger character.
Maria Eberhart is a sophomore writing about Latinx pop culture. Her column, “For Your Consideration,” runs every other Thursday.