Aging Women and the Media Essay

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Aging Women and the Media

As the fabric of American culture has continued along the often ponderous path of progress during the last century, women have experienced perhaps the most significant changes to both their daily lives and their position within modern society. While females in this country, and aging women in particular, have traditionally been relegated to peripheral roles involving familial concerns, a succession of societal advancements since the 1960's has moved their status towards the eventual goal of gender equality. Professional positions once reserved only for men have increasingly been opened for ambitious women to attain, salaries have been balanced to shatter the proverbial glass ceiling, and women currently control many of the most powerful political offices in the nation. Although the significance of the strides made by women in modern American society cannot be understated, a fundamental component of this country has failed in its duty to recognize and report the betterment of women's rights.
Popular media outlets, including network television sitcoms, big budget Hollywood films, and fashion magazines continue to classify aging women, especially wives, mothers and grandmothers, as second-rate citizens defined by their subjugation to male authority figures. As renowned feminist scholar Myrna Hant noted in her 2007 paper entitled Television's Mature Women: A Changing Media Archetype: From Bewitched to the Sopranos, "despite almost a half century of change and growth for women spurred by the Second Wave of the Women's Movement, older women continue to be depicted on television as caricatures informed by ageist ideologies" (Hant, 2007).

Hant's assertions regarding the role of aging women in American media can be observed firsthand through a variety of highly rated television programs currently ebing broadcasted….....

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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/aging-women-media-108898