How about Endora from Bewitched?
That vampalicious babe MUST be older ...at least a year or two...

A lot of these iconic characters are iconic because they've been around for a long time and, in their time, the film teenagers looked and acted 35-40, so of course by the time they'd hit 50 they were doing pretty well if they acted 70 or so. Now, of course, there's always been the awful double standard of older men becoming distinguished and respected elders (or, you know, staying immature playboys) and older women entering into the crone phase of their maiden/mother/crone trichotomy. I think, to some extent, those archetypes are starting to soften a bit in the media. If you look at more recent movies and television, you tend to find more women being presented as youthful well into their 50s.

there's certainly a disjuncture between these iconic figures and what they seem to project and how I myself feel at 50...but I think that's been true at every age. At 12 I never felt like the Brady Bunch, either. The images are out there, recirculated endlessly, at various points seeming to command our attention, but my question is, what do we "do" with them? Internalize them, reject them, relish or ridicule them, worry about them? In the end how much do projected cultural images have to do with any individual's life? I suppose as much or little as we choose...

The first line says it all, because we do have separate and unequal ways of looking at male and female characters in terms of age. CV's point that things might be improving is a true but it's only just starting to make an impact and the real question concerns how we judge at what age a woman starts to become "older". Think of how pitiful a 55 year old woman dating a 30 year old man would seem verses how 'natural' it would seem for a 55 year old man to be with a 30 or even a 25 year old woman.

The first line says it all, because we do have separate and unequal ways of looking at male and female characters in terms of age. CV's point that things might be improving is a true but it's only just starting to make an impact and the real question concerns how we judge at what age a woman starts to become "older". Think of how pitiful a 55 year old woman dating a 30 year old man would seem verses how 'natural' it would seem for a 55 year old man to be with a 30 or even a 25 year old woman.

"How old a man may be and yet be thought of as young"--yes, as astonishing as "how young a woman may be and yet be thought of as old." A 40-something guy told me at a party at my house a few weeks ago that he too had recently watched Sunset Boulevard, and, "Beth, you are a dead ringer for Gloria Swanson."

At age 51 I look like Norma Desmond?!? If I gained some weight and wore my hair in ringlets, maybe I would also resemble Aunt Pitty Pat in Gone with the Wind--at the end of the novel Scarlett finally admits to Rhett her age of 28, putting Aunt Pitty at about 50. And if I stopped dying my hair, perhaps I would be mistaken for Marmee in Little Women--also at the close of that classic, Jo reveals her own advanced age, 28. I know that the average American lifespan has increased significantly over the past century, but how depressing to remember that both "landmark" works were written by women.

Another great post, Gina!

I am older than Norma Desmond. I am older than you are gina. I will go around saying "I am older than Gina" whenever I can, even if it's not appropriate and even if no one knows who I'm talking about. This is between us Gina, I am sending this anonymously but I will give you a clue, we wrote a book together. I hope this makes you feel better although I am not, now that I think about it, a movie star or even a t.v. star.

I got a clipping from a friend telling me that Barbie will be 50 this year and will get a makeover.What kind of a makeover? Botox or wrinkles added? I wait in a state of foot-tapping impatience to find out.

I am older too, and remember that when I turned 50 I thought it okay if I gained a few pounds and stopped coloring my hair. However, I soon discovered that I became one of invisibles in our American society. Still, I refused to walk around in tight jeans and heels to fit the male image of sexy.

Dustin Hoffman: 30.
Anne Bancroft: 36.
'nuff said.

I think of Auntie Em and the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, both caricatures of what the mother/anti-mother look like. In the same light, all the Disney female characters project the elders as flittering Godmothers in pastel or evil doers in black ready to guide or harm the young and beautiful princesses. Once the character is no longer the bride-to-be/virgin, she is restricted to the other roles.

In reality, women, no matter how accomplished, still must dress and behave as the ingenue

Being a "woman of a certain age" myself and coming-up to the real mid-fifties age this year, I've been thinking a lot about my mother and what age she was at certain points of my life. When she was my age, I thought she was so old! She had me at age almost 41, so when she was 54, she had a 13 year old. I always considered both my parents old because they had me later in life. But in fact I think havine a teenager during their 50s kept them young, weather they wanted to be or not. Now we just love to say how 30 is the new 20 and 40 the new 30, etc. etc. And I do think that's true. Age fifty-four in 1968 is very different from 54 in 2009. Guess it's the world in which we live that's made the difference. But I still can never stop thinking about a joke I heard Alan King tell (who knows who Alan King is?, huh?). He said when he turned 55 everyone kept telling him, you're still young, mid-life, you're just hitting mid-life. Alan said, "Mid-life! How many 110 year old people do you know!" So no matter how we feel, the numbers are hard and cold. The best thing to do is forget about them, like you forget where you left your keys.

Alan King was one of my favorite comics and you're right in saying that nobody remembers who he is, except they know him as Seinfield's influence growing up, so at least there's that. But is that all we can hope for now, to be remembered as somebody's influence? Oy.

Similarly, it's awful how often young actresses have to act older. Just start by thinking of 19-year-old Lauren Bacall playing Bogart's love interest and proceed from there. In their twenties, actresses routinely play the mother of teenagers. It certainly makes it hard for those of us who are the appropriate age to have a teenager to feel attractive! Of course, 25 year old men playing teenagers doesn't help the self-image of the real teenage boys out there.

While your point about worship of youthfulness is too correct to ignore, you need to factor in the time in which we are living. If you were born in New York City in 1800, your life expectancy was 33 years (or something close to that). That's why the minimum age for senators was put at 30 years in the Constitution - they only wanted men of experience! If you were born in NYC in 1900, life expectancy for men was 48 years, women a little higher. So the old lady in Marty was a widower because - it was normal for her to be one at 56, in 1954! And she was an old lady - she was teetering on the edge herself. So late 20th century dwellers like ourselves cannot transfer our concept of age onto characters in the past. You need to calculate as you would for, say, dog years, where every year of the mother in Marty counts as two years for us. So -- feel better? In Marty years you're only 26! Rock on and part-tay!

Think about it. A middle-aged guy walks past a full-length mirror, checks out his reflection and whistles, "Damn! Lookin'good!" His female counterpart passes the same mirror, leans forward to get a close up of her face, quickly steps back two feet, switches off the overhead recessed lighting, sucks in her stomach,tightens her buttocks and hurries past as quickly as possible,vowing to "Do something!" to improve her appearance. A lifetime of cultural conditioning going on here? Why does Clint Eastwood's craggy face enhances his macho character while Diane Keaton's laugh lines get her roles as somebody's slightly wacky, over-the-hill mom? It's an intereesting perception of what defines still sexy expecially in light of the explosion of media blitz sexual performance products for men. And just think of the latest brouhaha that erupted over Michelle Obama's beautiful bare arms exposed in that gorgeous first lady portrait just released. What is she? Forty-four... it's not as if Ma Kettle has moved into the White House.

Older men with younger women?
How 'bout older men who are misshapen, face-lifted, staple-scared, drugged and 'alcoholed', messed up and rude, dating younger, pubescent starlets who played their daughter in the latest Hollywood hit? WRESTLE THAT!
I give up.

I love this game-it seems to let the air out of the tires of this Hummer of a social disease called "fear of aging."

For the record, Endora was 62.
Auntie Em was pushing 60, the Wizard of Oz was 49 and the Wicked Witch was 37!

Adding to my list, I am older than:
Auntie Mame and Vera Charles
Felix and Oscar
the Pigeon sisters added together
Phyllis on MTM
everyone on Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, Donna Read, Make Room for Daddy, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
the Professor, Thurston Howell III, and the Skipper
Perry Mason (the original TV series version)
Our Miss Brooks
Maude (50 on the nose when the show began)
Charlie (of the Angels)
My Favorite Martian
Jane Hathaway on Beverly Hillbillies (41!)
Alice of the Brady's (43)

You do realize that you are talking about actresses and actors who are in film and television? It's drama, which means by definition that there is a struggle, or a conflict. It's not real life.

I play this game with myself frequently - running comparisons in my mind. What stuns me lately is that President Obama is 5 YEARS YOUNGER than me! I am coming to grips with it - even excited to see where he takes us.

I also look back at pics of my mother at this age and see I look younger. We feel our lives are harder, more hectic, etc.; but I don't dye my hair nor have I had plastic surgery and I look younger...

Anyone see the Academy Awards show? Let's think a minute or three about Sophia Loren. She had it when, and she has it now. I don't know or care whether she has had "work" or not, because with Sophia Loren, it just doesn't matter. It didn't with Georgia O'Keeffe either. but we know she didn't get nipped or tucked or Botoxed. What counts is the flame within, not the tally of years. Let's think again about Sophia Loren, and then about, oh, Nicole Richie. If you had to be transplanted into one or the other, which would you choose?

From this article we see than an interesting subject prompts a great discussion. Nice to have Gina on the PT blog site.

i can honestly say, that i have no idea who any of the celebrities were that you'd referred to in your blog...i'm 26 years old but physically i feel like a 50 yr old woman. (7 yrs of marriage and 2 kids will do that to ya. lol)
i'm a bit hollywood obsessed myself..and good at remembering names..so though i've HEARD the names a few times, i haven't seen any of their movies. i feel a little better about myself...i'm not an obese soccer mom in training that i thought i was becoming. thank you, gina..thank you wholeheartedly.

Maybe we're wrong to think that beauty wizens with age... Maybe it is just beauty evolving, and our society does not dare to recognize it. Both my grandfathers are beautiful old men, and my grandmothers both have beauty in their wrinkles.

Anyway Gina, you should be reassured to know that men are physically weaker and just leave shorter than women in general. In a couple I know, the husband and the wife both have the same age, however, he does not climb and go on mountain hikes anymore, she still runs through mounts and rivers as though age had forgotten her.

Maybe there is a turning point in your life when your brain does not lead your body anymore, but your body overruns your brain, and that's what's tough to accept. Nonetheless you may be able to force your brain to keep the control a little longer; which is maybe why some people are seen by others as forever young in their heads.