The future, however, is luminous. We are moving away from the "cougar" joke and the "tragic spinster" and moving toward the complex crone —the woman who has survived, who has wisdom to share and hell to raise. Cinema is finally realizing that a close-up on a weathered, lived-in face tells a thousand more stories than a perfectly botoxed brow.

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For decades, Hollywood operated under a cruel arithmetic: a man’s career was a marathon, while a woman’s was a sprint to 40. Once the first fine lines appeared or the calendar turned past a certain number, the leading lady was shuffled into one of three boxes: the quirky mother of the bride, the wise ghost of Christmas past, or the sexually invisible best friend.

Mature women in entertainment aren't a trend. They are the correction. And we are all better for watching them take center stage.

Furthermore, we need to expand the definition of "mature woman" beyond the white, thin, wealthy archetype. We need stories about mature women of color, queer mature women, working-class mature women. , Angela Bassett , and Andra Day are doing the work, but the industry must follow.

Let’s look at the last five years alone. We’ve seen the spectacular, gritty, and vulnerable performances of women over 50, 60, and even 70 leading films and series to critical and commercial success. Think of at 60, winning an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once —a film that wasn’t about her age, but used her lifetime of experience, regret, and resilience as its emotional core. Think of Jamie Lee Curtis , 64, finally winning her first Oscar, not as a "scream queen" relic, but as a transformative character actor.

And then there’s , who has long proven that talent has no expiration date, but who continues to deliver nuanced, powerful work in projects like Only Murders in the Building , proving that mature women can be sexy, funny, and sinister all at once. Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts are producing their own content, telling stories about the messy, desirous, complicated lives of women who are not 25—from Big Little Lies to The Undoing .

So here’s to still rocking leather jackets. Here’s to Glenn Close finally getting her Oscar (please!). Here’s to Sandra Oh and Jodie Foster showing that queer desire gets richer with time. Here’s to every actress who refused to lie about her age, who demanded the role, who wrote the script, who produced the film.

Here’s a long-form post on the subject of . Title: The Silver Renaissance: Why Mature Women Are Finally Taking Their Rightful Place in Cinema