Older women in the media

[Enid]

Caught an item on Breakfast about the representation of older women in the media. It was a very angry letter from a viewer who commented that every item about 'the over 65s' is illustrated by a line of very old, white haired women doing something like shuffling around on a zimmer frame. This viewer pointed out at many of us hold down demanding jobs and so on. And that's certainly true of women on this forum. Many of us work, some part time, we provide very high quality child care ie education, we are women of affairs, belonging to societies, churches, community groups, and keep ourselves well informed. And, we're good neighbours too. Track back along some of these threads BBC and educate yourselves. It's so true, I get incensed when I see lots of older men on the television but no older women. I'm wondering if tis forum might collectively make representation to the appropriate bodies, BBC Sky etc. it would raise our profile too.

I wonder if we could do a bit of research between us? If we divide up a 24 broadcasting day and took an hour each on the main channels, and then counted, firstly the proportion of women to men and secondly the number of older women and the roles that they appear in. (I think we'd exclude drama) and then collate the findings. That would be a powerful message to send to the media bosses.
What do you think?

[jeangenie]

Enid - in principle I agree with you - not all 65 year olds are white haired and doddery (well, I'm not doddery!) The other phrase I see far too often in the press is something like: 68-year old pensioner, Mrs X.... I resent being defined by my source of income!!!

I think, very slowly, the tide is turning - I've noticed one or two female newsreaders who look as though they may have a bit of life experience.

The difficulty of identifying older women in the media, is that in so many cases, they look so young you would miss them in the count. Maybe there are more than we think.

Jean