Let Me Get this Queer

Recognition of Age and Sexuality in Grace and Frankie

Resumé

The purpose of this paper is to examine how older queer identities are represented in the contemporary American sitcom Grace and Frankie (2015 – 2022). By watching this TV show through the work on the depiction of sexuality in American family sitcoms provided by Tison Pugh in his book The Queer Fantasies of the American Family Sitcom (2018), this paper argues that different, unsung queer realities are starting to get more recognition in the U.S. television system. Grace and Frankie’s political statement of “being queer and in my 70s” and Pugh’s theoretical framework on the representation of queerness in U.S. television, are the tools this paper uses to analyze how a contemporary American comedy show deals with the intersection of age and sexuality.