#entry3 MediaPortfolio

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ENTRY 3: Analyzing Media Representations

The elderly community appears in all types of new media. Unfortunately when representing elderly people, new media relies on negative stereotypes to portray “old people.” Audiences who see these stereotypes in most forms of content develop an inaccurate idea of what it means to be old, which causes harmful ageism in our everyday lives.

Although there is an abundant amount of elderly roles in TV shows and movies, most characters are given minimal yet demeaning characteristics: cranky, behind the times, immature, slow, unattractive, forgetful and vulgar. In most TV shows, an elderly character is never the main character. Instead, they are a side character and act as the comic relief. Old people are used as the butt of the joke constantly by using their disabilities, such as lack of bowel control, as punchlines. Look at Abe Simpson from the Simpsons for example. Abe’s purpose in the show is to make the audience laugh by telling long stories that go nowhere, showing no remorse for others around him and constantly wanting to die. Abe is the perfect example of the old person stereotype. He is a World War II veteran, demented and desperate for his family’s attention.

In order to sell products to older adults, companies paint their customers as weak and helpless. In advertisements, brands use fear appeal in order to motivate their customers to purchase their product. Take this advertisement from Life Alert for example. The advertisement shown here models itself after a horror movie by showing an elderly woman screaming for help after she has fallen down the stairs. With no one being around to help her, the advertisement shows that their product, the Life Alert necklace, is an easy solution to stop “an accident from turning into a tragedy.” Companies like Life Alert rely on using the pre existing stereotype that elderly people are frail and defenseless and uses it against their customers in order to make money.

One TV show however, is challenging all of the stereotypes mentioned above. “Grace and Frankie” is a Netflix TV show about two women in their late 70’s who become unlikely friends after their husbands announce their love for one another. The show breaks the mold by not looking at the two main characters, Grace and Frankie, as grandmothers who are unable to take care of themselves, but instead as empowered women that take on any challenge they may face. While most elderly characters in TV shows stay at home isolated, Grace and Frankie travel all over the place on crazy adventures and are even business partners for their product: vibrators for older women with arthritis. The show tackles sexual relationships, death and LGBTQ+ issues in the elderly community, which no other show has even come close to doing.