TV Tropes: Love 'em or Loathe 'em

[Wiendish Fitch]

This reminds me: I'm sick of women who eat sensibly and work out being demonized and portrayed as shallow and image-obsessed. 

[andromeda331]

I agree with all three of you. But I did like that Rory was a teenage girl who ate food. She was so refreshing from all of tv teen girls and in real life who are constantly dieting and afraid to eat a salad. But Rory was a refreshing teenage girl all around. It was so nice to see a teen who loved school, books and studying. It wasn't even the whole she wanted to get into Yale, I mean she did but she also enjoyed school, classes and learning. It was nice that she also liked to eat and hang out with her mom. In nearly every tv show that's general a sign the teen's a loser. And not just a teen who actually likes all of that stuff. Some teens just aren't into the party scenes.

[Raja]

Then there are the best friends who work and seem to spend every waking moment together including parting at the same clubs after work, yet don't, can't eat the same types of food and have opposite styles of dress

[lucindabelle]

People who take pills every day are senior citizens or addicted or hypochondriac.

Nobody has autoimmune illness... Weird considering that jra you know, exists. Nobody has seasonal allergies or a controlled thyroid condition. Multiple pills are always code for old, sick, or crazy.

[Rick Kitchen]

I hate it when women characters run around slapping people with no consequences.  That's assault, folks.  The female characters on "Days of Our Lives" do it all the time, and not just slapping men, but slapping women, too.

[magicdog]

I hate it when women characters run around slapping people with no consequences.  That's assault, folks.

 

There's a bit more behind this trope.  In an earlier time, women, being the traditionally weaker sex  would occasionally slap a man as it was seen as "bringing him back to his senses" if he got  out of control. Most men wouldn't flinch anyway.   

 

There was an episode from "The Saint" called, "The Golden Journey" (1962).  In it, Simon Templar has a shrew to tame on the way to her wedding.  She's a spoiled rich brat about to marry his best friend. He (and the girl's aunt) scheme to steal her money and passport, forcing her to hike with Templar all the way to the wedding site for a lesson in humility.  Not having any of this at first, the woman slaps Templar, who promptly reminds her she is on thin ice and imagined respect and that if she hit him again he'd return the favor. 

[Mulva]

People who take pills every day indicacsenior citizens or addicted or hypochondriac.

Nobody has autoimmune illness... Weird considering that jra you know, exists. Nobody has seasonal allergies or a controlled thyroid condition. Multiple pills are always code for old, sick, or crazy.

Well you know that allergies are indicators that the character is a weakling nerd with lousy social skills, not the body's immune system overreacting to a foreign substance.

[Madding crowd]

You will also carry multiple pill bottles around if you are having a crisis such as finding out your man is cheating. Every time you are reminded, you will gulp the pills straight out of the bottle without water. Of course in real life, you might be on an anti-depressant which you would only take once a day or possibly a Xanax. It's doubtful you would be given many mood drugs that you would gulp throughout the day for a setback in your life.

[AntiBeeSpray]

Shows that figure that they have to resort to cheap drama to be able to develop character relationships.

[ChromaKelly]

People with asthma are nerds. An asthma-nerd will have to take a puff of his inhaler upon seeing a pretty girl or some other nervous moment. Nevermind that that's not how asthma works?

[topanga]

People with asthma are nerds. An asthma-nerd will have to take a puff of his inhaler upon seeing a pretty girl or some other nervous moment. Nevermind that that's not how asthma works?

And once the nerd gains enough confidence to go after the girl or do something else courageous, his asthma is suddenly cured, and he throws away his inhaler in dramatic fashion. Not how asthma works, either.

[ganesh]

Bob's Burgers played at this trope wroth a good gag with Rudy.

[lucindabelle]

Yes in general really sick of e whole illness = character TV throws at us.

And for some reason this year, Menopause jokes are in, which makes me feel bad as a half century girl. Matt Dillon is 51 and a secret agent superhero on Wayward Punes, but women are jokes, at least they didn't make a joke of it for robin wright on house of cards but until this year I never even heard the word menopause on TV and now I've heard it twice both as "oh you're not THAT old" contexts.

[Bastet]

until this year I never even heard the word menopause on TV and now I've heard it twice both as "oh you're not THAT old" contexts.

 

Cagney & Lacey and Cybill both did great stuff with menopause, but, yeah, everything else I can think of boils down to making menopausal women a joke.

[AntiBeeSpray]

Cagney & Lacey and Cybill both did great stuff with menopause, but, yeah, everything else I can think of boils down to making menopausal women a joke.

 

I think The Golden Girls did a good job with it too. It handled a lot of subjects well that were related to it.

[lucindabelle]

I think The Golden Girls did a good job with it too. It handled a lot of subjects well that were related to it.

That isnJUST my point though! Menopause = senior citizen golden girls? Argh, it's absurd. Marisa tomei is 50. And mart Dillon 51, Sarah jessica Parker is 49. Really I want this 50+ nonsense, as if now I'm in the same bracket as someone in their 80s, to end. Now.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

That isnJUST my point though! Menopause = senior citizen golden girls? Argh, it's absurd. Marisa tomei is 50. And mart Dillon 51, Sarah jessica Parker is 49. Really I want this 50+ nonsense, as if now I'm in the same bracket as someone in their 80s, to end. Now.

 

I think the point AntiBeeSpray is trying to make is that GG discouraged the POV that menopause equals getting old. The character in question, Blanche Devereaux, was having a fit because she'd realized she was starting menopause, despite the fact that she consistently lied about her age, like to the point of ridiculousness. At the end of the episode, she realizes that she isn't old at all, that all menopause means is that she can no longer have children, not that she's losing her sex appeal, which (according to her, at least) was her main attribute. How is it absurd to try dissuading people from the idea that they've got one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel just because they're aging?

[AntiBeeSpray]

That isnJUST my point though! Menopause = senior citizen golden girls? Argh, it's absurd. Marisa tomei is 50. And mart Dillon 51, Sarah jessica Parker is 49. Really I want this 50+ nonsense, as if now I'm in the same bracket as someone in their 80s, to end. Now.

 

Good point. But at least it was treated better in some ways than some shows handle it :(. Like older people shouldn't be having sex.

 

And to be fair, at the time they were in their 50's - 60's at the time the show was on. So they were NOT in their 80's. Only character around that age (and the actress wasn't that age in rl) was Sophia.

 

So it was representing women who were going through that period of their lives.

 

The closest I can think of now is Hot in Cleveland.

 

I think the point AntiBeeSpray is trying to make is that GG discouraged the POV that menopause equals getting old. The character in question, Blanche Devereaux, was having a fit because she'd realized she was starting menopause, despite the fact that she consistently lied about her age, like to the point of ridiculousness. At the end of the episode, she realizes that she isn't old at all, that all menopause means is that she can no longer have children, not that she's losing her sex appeal, which (according to her, at least) was her main attribute. How is it absurd to try dissuading people from the idea that they've got one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel just because they're aging?

 

Exactly. She was working against the whole stereotype that once a woman hits a certain age that they no longer be considered to be attractive. She found out otherwise.

[lucindabelle]

The show was called golden girls. As in sunset of your life. And I really don't want to be associated with that.

I'm also NOT worried about not being attractive anymore! Argh! Anymore an is Marisa tomei or Sarah jessica Parker. This is a stereotype and it's nasty. I get wolf whistled and hit on all the time.im not a joke, I'm nobody's grandma and the use of the word as a joke makes me feel bad. It's absurd and condescending to assume I need that reassurance. I do not, and neither does anyone my age that I knows thanks,

And sorry early fifties... Late 40/ is not "50s-60s." It just isn't.

Edited July 4, 2015 by lucindabelle

[DittyDotDot]

FYI, menopause can be experienced by ages 30-80. Average age is 51 years in the US, but there's supposed to be a 25 year window as everyone experiences it differently.

[lucindabelle]

Yes, I'm aware. And I don't think it's a fun punchline, and I resist the stereotype that if its acknowledged at all it should be with an aw, you're still attractive addendum. Talk about condescending...

[Madding crowd]

I agree with you 100% and also hate the idea that a man can be 50+ and still be a regular movie/tv hunk, but a woman is considered elderly. It is absurd to suggest that people who are 50, 60, 70, 80 or 100 are at the same stage of life. And yes, golden Girls was about being elderly, even if the actresses were not. Hot in Cleveland is a rare exception.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I resist the stereotype that if its acknowledged at all it should be with an aw, you're still attractive addendum. Talk about condescending...

 

With all respect, I'm not sure why you're acting as if that's how the episode in question played out. Or as if that's what anyone here said. Or something. The entire point is that it wasn't condescending at all, it was more like just an 'a-ha' moment, and then life went on as it always had.

[lucindabelle]

With all respect, I'm responding to what you wrote, which is that its so wonderful that the episode showed women they could still be sexually attractive. Yuck. Sorry, I find the whole notion of anyone needing to tell me or anyone my age that extremely condescending, like aw cute, women who are 50, dang it's not old. Duh, inKNOW. Again: Matt illonl david duchivny, the double standard is nauseating.

[AntiBeeSpray]

FYI, menopause can be experienced by ages 30-80. Average age is 51 years in the US, but there's supposed to be a 25 year window as everyone experiences it differently.

 

Exactly.

 

And I never viewed the Golden Girls as it being at the end of their lives or even near it. They were still full of life.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_VdxtdEKZA

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LkIJWemw_M

 

Blanche

 

 

Just using Blanche as an example. But she was still as full of life as any younger woman was then and still is. To view a show only through a title is pretty PC now. It was and still is far more than that.

I agree with you 100% and also hate the idea that a man can be 50+ and still be a regular movie/tv hunk, but a woman is considered elderly. It is absurd to suggest that people who are 50, 60, 70, 80 or 100 are at the same stage of life. And yes, golden Girls was about being elderly, even if the actresses were not. Hot in Cleveland is a rare exception.

 

I grew up watching that series. And the ONLY 'elderly' character on there was Sophia. Period. The rest of the women were in their 50's-60's. Since when does that qualify as being elderly? The last time I checked that isn't near that. The characters for the MOST part (aside from the actress who played Sophia -- who was younger than her character) around the SAME age as their characters were.

 

BTW, Betty White was in both shows and she kicked ass in both of them equally. And The Golden Girls was the spiritual tv ancestor to Hot In Cleveland imo.

 

Even though Hot In Cleveland was bluer, The Golden Girls was no slouch in the innuendo department.

[Madding crowd]

Ask most people what the Golden Girls was about and they will tell you it is about a group of seniors living together. Sophia of course was "very elderly". The women were portrayed as retired and not typical of most 50 year olds who still work and sometimes still have children living at home (me and my friends do anyway). Dorothy was a retired teacher, Rose did volunteer work and Blanche never worked I guess.

Edited July 5, 2015 by Madding crowd

[AntiBeeSpray]

Ask most people what the Golden Girls was about and they will tell you it is about a group of seniors living together. Sophia of course was "very elderly". The women were portrayed as retired and not typical of most 50 year olds who still work and sometimes still have children living at home (me and my friends do anyway). Dorothy was a retired teacher, Rose did volunteer work and Blanche never worked I guess.

 

Fair point. But seniors aren't technically into the older years until their 70's and 80's. They aren't dead sexually.

[Madding crowd]

They also aren't in their 50's.

[DittyDotDot]

Ask most people what the Golden Girls was about and they will tell you it is about a group of seniors living together. Sophia of course was "very elderly". The women were portrayed as retired and not typical of most 50 year olds who still work and sometimes still have children living at home (me and my friends do anyway). Dorothy was a retired teacher, Rose did volunteer work and Blanche never worked I guess.

 

I think it's important to remember that when this show aired--1980's--these women would've come of age in a time where people had children earlier. So, yes, their kids would've been grown and out of the house earlier, too. I'm the youngest of four and I was out of the house before my mother was 50. My sister is now 45 and has kids under the age of 12.  Also, I believe the retirement age back in the 80s was 60 for women and the economy being different people did actually retire early or at the very least, when they reached retirement age.

 

I never thought of The Golden Girls as being about elderly folks, but was more about what it was like to be in your 50s and 60s and single in the 1980s. The '80s were a time where attitudes towards women changed a lot and what their expected roles were once the children left the nest. To me, this was a show that helped redefine that women over 50 weren't just old grey haired ladies. These women dated, were sexually active and lived full lives still.

Edited July 5, 2015 by DittyDotDot

[lucindabelle]

Oh come on even the nme, golden girls, suggests retirees. Sorry, I don't feel better because of golden Girls! That series was absolutely marketed to be about women who amazingly didn't want to be seen as old. That is NOT my issue, nor is it an issue of any of my classmates.

And whether an individual thought of golden girls as being about old people or not really doesn't matter to me. Inreallybdont want to be lumped in with golden girls. It's great you loved the show, but I'm nowhere near retired. I don't need reassurance that my life isn't over and isn't that great. Yuck.

I actually remember the 80s... I was in college, not a child. And I don't think attitudes to women changed all that much. Sheesh, I had teachers then who were in their 60s. Loads of women had busy lives after kids went to college. I don't need to be reminded of stuff I lived through. How old are you, if you don't mind my asking? Because I find it odd you thnk this sitcom is a window into life and cultural attitudes, when I and the others posting from the late 40s-early 50s viewing lived through it as adults and remember it well. Golden girls was a successful sitcom and had about as much to do with culture change and norms as the Cosby show did. It was a way a network put some talented comediennes together. It was not a rallying cry for women then or now.

And even then, it wasn't true that most women in their 50s were old. Hells bells, my mom was in her early 50s when I was in college. And again wht is this "50s and 60s" as if it's the same? I'm not pushing 60. I'm barely 50. It's NOT the same. I resent being lumped in with someone 15-20 my ears older than me. Am I the same age as someone 67? I really am NOT.

I'm not the same age as Helen Mirren. I'm the same age as Elizabeth Hurley.

There was never a series called golden boys! Sunshine boys the film WAS about senior citizens. I'm sorry but I find the whole notion of golden girls dealing wi the issue as a way of saying TV has handled it to be completely irrelevant. . Again... David duchovny, Matt Dillon, OLDER THAN ME. Sarah jessica Parker, Marisa tomei, robin wright, MY AGE. I'm dead sure none of us feel like oh well golden girls dealt with it! I'm just saying I find the jokiness damn offensive and I don't think its ok. Fat jokes re not ok and middle aged women jokes are not ok. Period.

Edited July 5, 2015 by lucindabelle

[legaleagle53]

Ask most people what the Golden Girls was about and they will tell you it is about a group of seniors living together. Sophia of course was "very elderly". The women were portrayed as retired and not typical of most 50 year olds who still work and sometimes still have children living at home (me and my friends do anyway). Dorothy was a retired teacher, Rose did volunteer work and Blanche never worked I guess.

 

Blanche worked in a museum as the assistant to the curator.  And Dorothy wasn't a retired teacher -- she was a substitute teacher.  As for Rose?  After she was laid off from her job at the counseling center, she got a job as an investigative reporter for a local television station.  The only one who was actually retired was Sophia -- and even she did volunteer work at the hospital, among many other things that no one else apparently knew about.

[magicdog]

hate the idea that a man can be 50+ and still be a regular movie/tv hunk, but a woman is considered elderly

 

This made me flash back to an episode of "Laverne & Shirley" in which Laverne his having a conversation with Mrs. Babish about heartthrobs of different generations.  Laverne and Shirley were throbbing over teen idol, Fabian (the episode is set circa 1959), while Babish muses how Cary Grant was the heartthrob of her generation.  Laverne mentions how Grant was still a heartthrob.  This leads Babish to wonder how was it she got older while Grant got cuter!   

[DittyDotDot]

It's great you loved the show, but I'm nowhere near retired. I don't need reassurance that my life isn't over and isn't that great. Yuck.

 

I didn't really like the show much at all, nor did I state that I did.  I actually have no recollection of whether they were retired or not (apparently they weren't, though) just that they were unattached, no kids at home and in the case of Dorothy, was caring for her elderly mother. What I remember, the show was about women in their 50s and 60s, single and still lived their lives fully. Which went against the trope of "women's lives are over once they're over 50." Obviously, that's not what you got from the show and that's fine. I was just responding the poster above said, "Ask most people what the Golden Girls was about and they will tell you it is about a group of seniors living together." Well, I consider myself a person and I'm saying I didn't see it that way.

 

BTW, I'll be 43 shortly.

Edited July 5, 2015 by DittyDotDot

[lucindabelle]

Thanks for the reply.

I assume it would be all right if I lumped you in with people in their "40s and 50s" then, since this is I think the third time I've read "50s and 60s" like this. Therefore, since I am 50 & you are 42, were t he same age, I guess. I'm being sarcastic and I don't men to sound hostile but I hope you see my point, how round you feel if someone said "40s and 50s". Do you have the same issues s someone 57?

I don't thnk golden girls regardless of those details was ever about women in their prime having interesting lives. Again. Sitcom using comediennes to make network money, did not change perception of women. Was not somehow affirming,

And all of it is irrelevant to making a joke out of menopause. Sorry.

Edited July 5, 2015 by lucindabelle

[Madding crowd]

https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2014%2F06%2F20%2Fthe-golden-girls-_n_5512554.html

If you read this article, it states the Golden Girls was about elderly women worrying about things like cataracts. Sorry but I'm over 50, work full time and have teenagers at home. And yes, Dorothy was a retired teacher who occasionally subbed for extra income. Lots of teachers do that. 50 year olds are not elderly.

[DittyDotDot]

I assume it would be all right if I lumped you in with people in their "40s and 50s" then, since this is I think the third time I've read "50s and 60s" like this. Therefore, since I am 50 & you are 42, were t he same age, I guess. I'm being sarcastic and I don't men to sound hostile but I hope you see my point, how round you feel if someone said "40s and 50s". Do you have the same issues s someone 57?

 

I actually don't care much about how old other people think I am. I get lumped in with 50 year olds all the time and it doesn't bother me in the least.

 

ETA: When I used 50s and 60s, I was speaking to how old I thought the different women were. I always thought Blanche was in her early 50s and Dorothy in her mid-to late-60s. And Betty White's character somewhere around 60. Sofia, of course, was in her 80s. It wasn't a statement of lumping people into the same age group.

Edited July 5, 2015 by DittyDotDot

[DittyDotDot]

https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2014%2F06%2F20%2Fthe-golden-girls-_n_5512554.html

If you read this article, it states the Golden Girls was about elderly women worrying about things like cataracts. Sorry but I'm over 50, work full time and have teenagers at home. And yes, Dorothy was a retired teacher who occasionally subbed for extra income. Lots of teachers do that. 50 year olds are not elderly.

 

And, I think the show itself was saying the same thing.

[lucindabelle]

The show was perceived by many and still is as being about elderly women.

Regardless. The TV trope I hate is clearly in place. However you see the sitcom it's now off the air and irrelevant to the current spate of scorn on TV.

[ToxicUnicorn]

I'm going to wade into the stormy seas.  From what I understand, lucindabelle hates the tv trope:

 

but until this year I never even heard the word menopause on TV and now I've heard it twice both as "oh you're not THAT old" contexts.

 

which sounds perfectly reasonable from what she's told us about her views.  I agree with the other posters about The Golden Girls, however, and here's where I'm coming from...

 

I think the tv responses in this day and age of "oh you're not THAT old" are more a movement toward trying to be politically correct rather than a put down.  My impressions (based on nothing but my memories) is that tv women before the 80s were either: young, attractive, and potential marriage prospects (with the default being that they would then have children), or mothers with children at home, or motherly types who had already raised children (dare I say, the grandmotherly type).  I suppose there were also the never-married, not mothers themselves, but still motherly types as well (I'm thinking of Andy Griffith's Aunt Bea or Brady Bunch's Alice).

 

Anyway, my point is that to introduce other categories, such as the married woman who wasn't planning to have children (Bob Newhart's Suzanne Pleshette character) in the 70's and the woman who was going to emphasize career and then have a child despite not getting married (Murphy Brown) in the 80s made those shows and characters pretty unusual.  Even groundbreaking.

 

Golden Girls introduced yet another category, the women who were over 50 but who were a) not still mothers with children at home, or b) not going to be defined by having to be the grandmotherly type.  They got to have lives of their own, and they got to live in a functioning household without a man in it.  I found that pretty radical and the opposite idea of your life is over once you hit 50, or don't have a child in the house, or don't have a husband, or hit menopause.  Whichever one comes first.  From my perspective, it was a pretty positive show.

 

Anyway, to bring it back full circle, given the history of how all these tv shows have set precedents, for tv shows today to make jokes about menopause that affirm the fact that women still have full lives to go seems ok to me. 

 

ETA:  (Oops, was writing while ChattyGirl was posting .. I think I'm on her wavelength as well.)  Also, if you're a complete nerd, like I am, you might find the last two paragraphs of the section: Long Term Trends of this paper from the Bureau of Labor Statistics interesting:

 

American Families: 75 years of change, by James Wetzel (I googled "demographics 1980s average family size" and it's a pdf from the BLS.)

Edited July 6, 2015 by ToxicUnicorn

[ganesh]

One of the things I liked about Evan and Paige on Royal Pains was that they were a happily married couple, each with their own lives, and didn't even talk about having kids. But of course, we had to have The Pregnancy Scare. Now they're all super psyched! to have a baby. *eyeroll*

[legaleagle53]

And of course in the seventies, we had Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern (she never got pregnant, did she?). It's still hard to believe after forty years, though, that the trend didn't endure.

 

True, but according to the made-for-TV sequel, both Mary and Rhoda did eventually get married (or remarried, in Rhoda's case) and had daughters of their own who turned out to be not unlike their mothers.  So there's that.

[Chaos Theory]

Also for the record Baby Boomers are among the largest percentage of Americans so TV is writing toward them or not against them hence CBS as a channel. We're not THAT old....see Netflix Grace & Frankie which had a funny joke not about menopause exactly but about the elderly being invisiblle..actually I think there were a couple about sex at a certain age.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[lucindabelle]

I'm going to wade into the stormy seas. From what I understand, lucindabelle hates the tv trope:

which sounds perfectly reasonable from what she's told us about her views. I agree with the other posters about The Golden Girls, however, and here's where I'm coming from...

I think the tv responses in this day and age of "oh you're not THAT old" are more a movement toward trying to be politically correct rather than a put down. My impressions (based on nothing but my memories) is that tv women before the 80s were either: young, attractive, and potential marriage prospects (with the default being that they would then have children), or mothers with children at home, or motherly types who had already raised children (dare I say, the grandmotherly type). I suppose there were also the never-married, not mothers themselves, but still motherly types as well (I'm thinking of Andy Griffith's Aunt Bea or Brady Bunch's Alice).

Anyway, my point is that to introduce other categories, such as the married woman who wasn't planning to have children (Bob Newhart's Suzanne Pleshette character) in the 70's and the woman who was going to emphasize career and then have a child despite not getting married (Murphy Brown) in the 80s made those shows and characters pretty unusual. Even groundbreaking.

Golden Girls introduced yet another category, the women who were over 50 but who were a) not still mothers with children at home, or b) not going to be defined by having to be the grandmotherly type. They got to have lives of their own, and they got to live in a functioning household without a man in it. I found that pretty radical and the opposite idea of your life is over once you hit 50, or don't have a child in the house, or don't have a husband, or hit menopause. Whichever one comes first. From my perspective, it was a pretty positive show.

Anyway, to bring it back full circle, given the history of how all these tv shows have set precedents, for tv shows today to make jokes about menopause that affirm the fact that women still have full lives to go seems ok to me.

ETA: (Oops, was writing while ChattyGirl was posting .. I think I'm on her wavelength as well.) Also, if you're a complete nerd, like I am, you might find the last two paragraphs of the section: Long Term Trends of this paper from the Bureau of Labor Statistics interesting:

American Families: 75 years of change, by James Wetzel (I googled "demographics 1980s average family size" and it's a pdf from the BLS.)

No. Because the menopause jokes arent being made to women of whom it's remotely possible. It's being said to women in their 30s or early 40s to say hey at least you're not that.

It is impossible to take these references s complimentary, "I feel like I went through menopause on the subway" to indicate how long the ride was is a woman saying oh menopause is really far away. Even though the actress is 41 so it probably really isn't.

Sarah jessica Parker is 50 and I doubt she would like to be called a golden girl.

These are not affirming to women My age, they are put downs to affirm the sexuality of much youngerwomen"hey at least YOU are not in menopause."

It's not saying to a woman, hey tour not so old. It's the polar opposite. It's making a Big Joke out of it, and by extension, women that age.

Edited because spelling.

Edited July 7, 2015 by lucindabelle

[juno]

When a character likes (love) another character no matter who they meet or how awesome they are they are not allowed to have any relationship, or if they do it will be doomed until the shippy (did I just make up this word?) comes along. See Everwood, West Wing, The Flash. On TWW, Josh was so much more compatible with Amy but had to have Donna.

[Madding crowd]

Sarah jessica Parker is 50 and I doubt she would Liel to be called a golden girl.

These are not affirming to women My age, they are put downs to affirm the sexuality of much tiungerwomen"hey at least toure not in menopause."

 

 

Lucindabelle and I have the same rights as any other group. In this case it means we have the right to not want to be called elderly or a Golden Girl no matter how "full of Life" or "Feisty" the Golden Girls were. We are not in the same group as the actual elderly any more than you are. And if you are 40, you could be a grandmother too. Do you want to be called elderly because you could have a 20 year old child? How about full of life?

 

My mother in law is 85, in a wheelchair and she is elderly. I am not and don't wish to be called that or treated as if I am anything other than an adult woman. We also have a right to say that the Golden Girls was a good show, but not representative of the ages we are now, and the lives we live now, thus it is a TV Trope and now applicable to most of us.

[lucindabelle]

Exactly.

It's a magazine trope but it's also why I hate the "50+" thing magazines do to save space, as if my skin care situation were now the same as every woman my age or older, but suddenly wildly different from someone two years younger. Or style advice as if i or Sarah jessica Parker should dress the same as

No wait, I do help my mom buy clothes so I take that back. I wear more heels but she's in capris and aerosoles. No velour track suits for her on my watch.

Point is, I really don't think any age group should be made into a joke to make another feel better. Or any group as Madding Crowd points out. I30 used to be a cutoff point, not the apex of coolness... When I was growing up there would never have been a movie about a little girl who wished to be 30. (Mad men got that right, betty was 28 when sally was about seven) When I urned 40, it was considered old and now it's not... SO many people have kids in their 40s....

This is all relative, and I'm pretty sure people will stop thinking 50 is old when I'm about 56, but in the meantime, it really isn't right now, either.

[Moose135]

This is all relative, and I'm pretty sure people will stop thinking 50 is old when I'm about 56, but in the meantime, it really isn't right now, either.

 

I turned 55 a couple of weeks ago, and I don't think I'm old - hell, I have a hard enough time realizing I'm an adult, let alone that I'm old.  Of course, being a guy, the rules are different.

[Shannon L.]

 

I turned 55 a couple of weeks ago, and I don't think I'm old - hell, I have a hard enough time realizing I'm an adult, let alone that I'm old.

 

When my mother in law died at the age of 70, people were shocked because she died "so young".  Those were their exact words.  I just turned 46 and have said that my body feels much closer to that age than my mind does and I, personally, don't see 46 when I look in the mirror. 

Edited July 7, 2015 by Shannon L.

[lucindabelle]

Yes sadly the rules Are Diifferent, see Matt Dillon, david duchovny. I don't think you're old and don't think 55 ever was. When I was 29 I had a relationship for awhile with a 54 year old man (looking back that was ridiculous but you see my point).

I'm sure you wouldn't like to be considered a golden anything!

[Demented Daisy]

Good guys getting blamed for the actions of the bad guys -- for not giving in or stopping the bad guys.

 

Pick a cop show.  Sooner or later, a bad guy will say something like, "If you don't do exactly as I say, every person I kill -- their deaths will be on you."  Or the cop will say, "If only I had been able to stop him X number of years ago."