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Even comedy has been reborn. Only Murders in the Building gives the legendary Meryl Streep—at 74—a role that is flirtatious, vulnerable, and delightfully eccentric. She is a love interest. She is funny. She is not "Meryl Streep, icon"; she is "Meryl Streep, actor playing a woman who still wants to get laid and mess up her lines."

The myth that audiences don't want to see older women in love or sexual situations has been challenged. The Wonder (Florence Pugh, younger, but featuring older supporting love stories), Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Emma Thompson, 63, portraying a widow exploring sexual fulfillment), and Book Club (Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, all over 70) proved box office viability and streaming popularity. milfylicious chii v030 maximus exclusive

Classical Hollywood cinema, from the 1930s through the 1950s, offered few models for aging female stars. Actresses like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford fought bitterly against being cast as mothers to younger leads (often played by actresses only a decade their junior). Davis famously noted that while her male co-stars, like Humphrey Bogart, aged into distinguished leads, she was offered "monstrous" roles. The industry operated on a dual standard: male actors could be "distinguished" at 50; female actors became "matronly." Even comedy has been reborn

: Moving past one-dimensional mother or grandmother tropes. She is funny

Representation matters at every age. For too long, women in midlife and beyond have been told that their value is tied to their youth. Seeing confident, powerful women on screen sends a vital message to society: Life does not end at 40, 50, or 70. In fact, for many women, that is when they finally step fully into their power.

, whose career as a leading lady spanned an incredible six decades.