Seeing Red: An Analysis of Age within the Intersectional Paradigm of Orange Is the New Black

A self-declared feminist writer and showrunner, Jenji Kohan is responsible for the acclaimed prison dramedy Orange Is the New Black (Netflix, 2013–2019). One of the most interesting roles within the diverse female ensemble of the show is Galina “Red” Reznikov (Kate Mulgrew). She starts off as the prison chef and a respected mother figure for the young, white inmates as the audience accompanies her in a journey that includes competition for leadership, banishment, negotiation, bartering, disappointment, self-reinvention, revenge, and resistance to personal degradation. Today’s media are dominated by the cult of youth and to unrealistic canons of beauty and behavior that particularly impinge on women. In OITNB, Jenji Kohan partially resists the mainstream narrative and offers the possibility of a counter-discourse about aging female figures through some of her characters, most particularly Red. In this paper we dissect Red’s evolution with an intersectional feminist approach, to try and demonstrate that Kohan devises the storylines of OITNB within a timidly changing panorama for elderly female characters, making a limited but relevant contribution to the dismantling of static age profiling and negative gender stereotyping.