My generation is entering our "golden years" with seriously golden role model entertainers & actors leading the way. What we see reflected back from movies, television, music is light years from from what our mothers experienced.
Yes, 56-year old Bette Davis was cast in the hit film - as a decaying child star in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Compare that to what we see on the screen these days. In her late 50s, Diane Keaton made a hit movie where she left her wildly younger love interest for an older guy.
In her late fifties, Meryl Streep was in a hit movie that found her hotly pursued by her ex-husband & sweetly wooed by her charming architect.
Women in their late 50s, not just having sex but being ardently desired. That's our backdrop for entering "old age."
A generation ago,it was simply not so. Our mothers grew up with women being portrayed as sexless after 30, with only the rarest film makers showing a mature couple doing more than affectionately kissing their spouses.
My generation is entering old age seeing "older folks" portrayed as still sexually attractive & active, unimaginable in our parents' day, where tv & movie standards demanded married couples have separate beds. What do younger folks think, watching The Dick Van Dyke Show?
Forget "No sex, please - we're British" ~ ~ decent Americans of our parents' era weren't supposed to be doing it, either!
I think of the great Loretta Lynn, releasing a new album - at 83.
I think of a pleasant acquaintance & fabulous chanteuse - Peggy King - who just released her first album in decades. At 86.
June Squibb, also 86, Oscar-nominated for the first time at 84, currently in I'll See You In My Dreams, is another woman edging toward her nineties under a full head of steam & a heart filled with dreams.
Offering up a grateful prayer to Blythe & Peggy, June & Loretta & all the awesome writers, producers, directors et al who realize the richness to be found in aging & celebrate it.
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