Reality television dating with participants aged 65+: constructing empowered older women and “less than” older men in <i>Hotel Romance</i>

This paper presents a qualitative, reflexive thematic analysis of Season 2 of the Swedish reality television dating show Hotel Romance (2023–) featuring women and men between 65–85 years old. The analysis focuses on the constructed gender power dynamics between the women and men on the show which is generated through four sub-themes relating to gendered traits, looks, love and sexual stereotypes. The exposed gender power dynamics establishes older women as empowered and superior in relation to older men who do not appear to adhere to women’s standards and therefore come across as “less than” what women desire. Such a 65+ gender power dynamics contrasts with existing research of gender representations in reality television dating shows featuring younger participants where sexism and patriarchal values are routinely reproduced. The result also clashes with research of images of older women in the media which expose systematic devaluations of this group. Finally, insights into the production of the show suggest that, along with conveying a successful ageing discourse, Hotel Romance implicitly positions older people of both genders as Others to be looked at by 30-something audiences who are assumed to dread the loss of love, sex and romance after the age of 65.