At Her Age: An Anthropological Analysis of the Construct of Age in the TV Series "Muddy Tires "

Abstract

This anthropological analysis of the Serbian TV series Muddy Tires (Kaljave Gume), which aired in the spring of 2021 on the Radio Television of Serbia, aims to point out the principal meanings which can be subsumed under the three dominant problems faced by the protagonist Vesna when she finds herself in situations that demand a reexamination of previously accepted norms regarding older members of contemporary Serbian society. The analytical procedure, also applied to film, involved the construction and study of an ethnography which consists of production, content and reception, with primary emphasis on the first two elements. In this way, it was possible to distinguish several of the more important themes that underpin the basic plot structure, which, very briefly, follows the everyday life of a sixty-year-old former pianist who, following the death of her husband with whom she had an unhappy marriage, leaves for California to visit her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Her relocation from the environment in which she has spent her entire life has thus created the conditions for her to embark on a new relationship with an elderly American whom she met online, but also for the process of conflict with and resistance to norms which have typically dictated to her, as a widow, certain emotions, and actions in accordance with them, while challenging others. This process in which her age is foregrounded in contrast to actions which are labelled "out of time" and therefore inappropriate, even unacceptable for those closest to her, also involves actions by opponents dressed up in the specific form of ageism such as the so-called well-meaning ageism, when an older person is forced to accept unwanted expressions of "concern" and "assistance". Finally, a subsidiary but haunting motif is the motif of suicide of older members of society (in the series committed by Vesna’s brother-in-law Jovan), which functions as a reflection of easier acceptance and understanding by one’s community, unlike the decision to continue life in a new, late-life relationship following the death of a spouse. Finally, it should be observed that the attitudes, actions and censure of the adult members of one’s family are dominant.