(no subject)

[fan_eunice]

Today I am officially the mother of a 20 year old. Not gonna lie, it makes me feel old...or more accurately it makes me feel like time is moving too fast. That thing I saw on Tumblr with the argument between kids born in the 80s and kids born in the 90s over whether the former are too 'old' to be on Tumblr doesn't help. Neither does this being the first year I've really noticed that nearly all the characters on tv are either younger than me, or the scattered few that aren't are a benchpoint I'll be quickly passing in the next few years. It's not that I thought it was untrue that women over 40 get disappeared in media before this. I think I just never felt it?

And I'm really uncomfortable with this growing sense that I'm not 'supposed' to find fun or escape in the same ways I always have. Like who I am radically changes because I'm approaching the magic number of No Fun Anymore, Ever. I don't actually mind getting older, never have (I do get freaked out by how fast it happens). I am starting to get annoyed at being seen as 'old' by how that's culturally defined.

Hrmf.

Comments

[jackiekjono]

We have this gal in our office who is about 22. I can't remember what she said one day but, I responded to it with a popular song quote and she was shocked that I new the song because, apparently, turning 40 should have made me deaf or something.

I intend to still have fun in whatever way I want - even if I do have to go to bed a little earlier and pay more attention to my fiber intake than I used to.

These kids today!

*shakes fist*

[laurashapiro]

Boy, do I hear you. Age does come with some perks (young people offer me a seat on the train! I get taken seriously at work! sexual harassment is nonexistent!), but the judgment that most people make about a "woman of a certain age" is tiresome in the extreme. Clearly were all terribly boring.

I've been so happy to remain in a community of women that's aging right along with me. We can support each other, talk this shit out, and above all revel together in the fun we are very much having. That's the way forward, for me anyway.

[elynross]

Me, I'm starting to notice that the characters on my shows that are roughly my age aren't even the *parents* anymore -- they're the grandparents, or the minor characters, or the one-offs. Ah, well! You're at least in the parent range now, although, right? *ducks*

[fan_eunice]

Kiiiiinda? I mean, it's weird. I had my son at 18...and most people I know my age now didn't start having kids until around/after 30 and still have young children, right?

Except on the tv, when parents are around in any capacity the ones of older teenagers are...my age? It's like, in teevee land everyone has kids when they are between 18-25. And then disappear at age 40 until they become...yeah, grandparents in a minor role capacity.

I dunno.

[nonelvis]

That thing I saw on Tumblr with the argument between kids born in the 80s and kids born in the 90s over whether the former are too 'old' to be on Tumblr doesn't help.

BRB, telling everyone on Tumblr to get the hell off my lawn.

[copracat]

I was interested to learn that Dana Delaney and Joanna Cassidy (who plays her mother on Body of Proof) are close in age - 55 and 66! Dana's daughter in the show is supposed to be in her early teens and is played by an under-20 actress. The other two female regular cast are 44 (Jeri Ryan) and 48 (Sonja Sohn). There's one semi-regular cast member who is in her twenties.

It's nice to have a show that isn't specifically about older women (unlike Hot in Cleveland or Golden Girls) be a predominantly non-twenties cast.

[heresluck]

My goddaughter is graduating from college this spring. Graduating. from. college. Not enough o.O in the world, I tell you.

And I hear you on the "women over 40 get disappeared in media" -- I'm starting to feel that too.

It doesn't help that, for the first time, the media character I'm currently crushing on is played by an actor more than a decade younger than I am. That's new for me, and REALLY weird.

[boxofdelights]

*eyeroll* Kids!

I was just thinking, when my 19-year-old was home for winter break, that we don't have a generation gap like the baby boomers and their parents did, at least not over culture and our ideas of fun.

We like different things, of course; we're different people. But when we talk to each other about what we like, it isn't a different kind of conversation than I have with friends my own age. And when I murmur "Socially Awkward Penguin moment" to her she knows exactly what I mean.

[cee_m]

If that's true, my parents are doing a lot of things wrong. :) That's one of my favorite things about them. They are fun times.

So we're not the cultural norm. Since when is that a surprise?