Aging women’s sexual agency: Subverting the male gaze in Japanese pink film Lily Festival (2001)

This article critically examines Sachi Hamano’s Lily Festival (2001) as a feminist and queer cinematic intervention within Japanese pinku eiga (softcore pornography), analyzing how the film challenges ageism and sexism through three interconnected strategies: subverting the male gaze, reconfiguring aging sexuality, and articulating an aging female/queer gaze. Methodologically, the article employs an integrated textual-contextual analysis, combining close reading of cinematography—such as obscured phallic imagery and extreme close-ups of aging erogenous zones—with critique of Japan’s socio-cultural narratives that marginalize older women. Theoretically, it draws on three intersecting frameworks—Mulvey’s feminist critique of the male gaze, de Lauretis’s queer spectatorship, and Sontag and Woodward’s aging studies—to examine Hamano’s reimagining of aging femininity. The film subverts patriarchal visual conventions by denying phallic visibility and reversing power dynamics through older women’s manipulation of impotent male bodies. It also reconfigures aging sexuality by having aging protagonists reclaim autonomy through both subversive heterosexual encounters and emergent same-sex intimacy. Furthermore, through emotionally resonant cinematography—such as reciprocal close-ups and gender-subversive fantasies—the film articulates an aging female/queer gaze, creating non-objectifying visual economies. By situating older Asian lesbians at the intersectional margins of ageism, sexism, and heteronormativity—distinguishing aging female subjectivity from queerness while tracing how they mutually reinforce each other—the film challenges an established paradigm: the heteronormative and youth-centered visual economy of mainstream pornography. This process of constructing a counter-gaze—through subversion, reconfiguration, and articulation—contributes to aging studies by advocating media narratives that redefine femininity beyond patriarchal constraints.