Ageism on TV still exists

I don’t mind it in comedy programmes. Some old people do become very outspoken/embarrassing etc. An elderly aunt of dh who we used to take regularly out for lunch would say at the top of her voice e.g. ‘WHY DOES THAT WAITRESS WEAR SUCH A SHORT SKIRT WITH LEGS LIKE THAT?’ Or out in the street, ‘BLACKS EVERYWHERE NOWADAYS!’ when she’d just seen someone of that description.

Cringe! And yet she was a highly intelligent, well informed woman who’d held very responsible jobs. There was no dementia to account for it, either.

Where I do really mind it is when e.g. female newsreaders are ditched because they’re getting on a bit, when the same never seems to happen to men.

They will all be old themselves one day. I saw a post the other day where someone thought people 40 and above were old and did not contribute much to society. Ageism is not going anywhere soon.

They also like portraying the old as foul mouthed and thoroughly horrid. Catherine Tate's gran for example, and the two oldies in 'Mum'.

Almost all media presentations of older people show them as doddery, absent minded and at times, downright stupid.

It is time we started campaigning for equality and making sure we are represented fairly, just as women, those of other ethnicity, the disabled amd every other group in society has.