Each day, almost everyone in the world comes in contact with an older adult. For the purpose of this paper, an older adult is a man or woman who is over the age of 65. Although they are seen regularly in society, have you ever stopped to notice how older adults are treated and portrayed in on-screen media? Most people who watch television have started to notice the quantity and quality of older adult characters over the years. During the era of television shows such as The Golden Girls, older men and women were almost always in a featured role. They were also portrayed in a positive light. As years have passed, older adults are becoming less frequent in on screen media such as television. When they are cast as characters, they are portrayed as needy, annoying, and a complete burden. This paper will explore the different types of messages and representations the media communicates about older adulthood.
One of the most common issues surrounding older adults in television is how they are represented. Here, the word representation means the quantity of older adults that are used as main or secondary characters in television shows. Out of all three of the programs I watched, I conclude that older adult characters have a very low representation rate. The Golden Girls is the only exception to this finding, but keep in mind that it is an older show. Though the Golden Girls is a show made up entirely of four older women ranging in age from 53 to 86. Occasionally a young adult will appear as a guest star, but usually the show consists completely of older adults. The show seems to run infrequently, but sometimes there happens to be a re-run playing at an odd hour of the afternoon, most likely when older adults are watching. Shows with s...
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Growing up with such a strong role model, as Anaya describes him, has altered his personal values over a long period of time. He saw his grandfather and other elders as beautiful and strong, all of them being full of wisdom and stories to share,”The old people I remember from my childhood were strong in their beliefs, and as we lived daily with them we learned a wise path of life to follow.” (Anaya) He believes that old people are willful and strong and should be looked up to. Towards the end of the essay, Anaya brings up how old people are portrayed as smiling and happy in the media, and how they’re also always trying to sell something. He thinks that the media hides the way old people truly are,”Commercials show very lively old men, who must always be in excellent health according to the new myth, selling insurance policies or real estate as they are out golfing; older women selling coffee or toilet paper to those just married.” (Anaya) Anaya’s personal experiences when he was younger, and growing up with his strong grandfather made his personal values into what they are
Younger generations and the more vulnerable in society can be influenced in avoiding peer pressure, but for the individuals filled with wisdom, the shows can reflect based on American modern society. Everybody Loves Raymond and Full House are great shows who faces similar life obstacles a typical person living in the US has today. As a result, most modern family comedy sit-coms are reflecting our society’s generations and the more vulnerable. Based on the success of early family sit coms, American’s adapted to a fast pace lifestyle with the help of modern
Throughout Seinfeld’s eight-season stint on network television the show and its creator’s have stereotyped everything from young Puerto Rican boys to Jewish Priests. The main stereotype of this sit-com is the very florid portrayal of the generational age groups of the characters. The main characters represent the beginning of the Generation X culture. The parents and relatives of Jerry Seinfeld and that of George Costanza present the presence of the members of the Silent or GI generation. Throughout the television series we have seen the elderly as stereotypically helpless individuals with little or no purpose. The character’s Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Elaine Benes, and Cosmo Kramer, represent the Generation X culture. These half-witted characters are often unreliable and uncaring about the society they live in. These characters often care about nothing more about life outside their own. The stereotype of these characters and the success of this very popular television show have contributed to the media’s wide usage of stereotyping generations. The article, “My Inner Shrimp,” can be directly correlated to George’s eccentric ego trips with his problems with shortness, unemployment, and baldness. George’s character is often portrayed as a very loud, very rambunctious person who is often seeking to be on top.
The majority of romance-based reality television programming is geared towards the individuals under thirty- five years old. It is important to note, some reality shows like Survivor and Celebrity Apprentice target a wider demographic. These shows typically target eighteen to forty-nine year olds. The re...
Socialization plays in important part in the passing on of culture from generation to generation. It is defined as the lifelong process of social interaction through which we acquire a self-identity and the skills needed for survival. The agents of socialization provide the necessary social interactions to teach culture to individuals in a society. The four primary agents of socialization include parents, education, peers, and media. The most pervasive one, media, has a major role in teaching messages about the norms in culture. The purpose of this project was to observe the subtle messages that a TV series, like The Simpsons, send about gender, class, disability/ability, and age.
The television series “Bojack Horseman”, “Arrested Development”, and “Louie” portray older adult characters that are having a difficult time accepting that they are no longer how they were when they were younger. In the show “Bojack Horseman”, the characters Bojack and his two friends Todd and Herb all experience events that make them feel old, while Louis C.K. realizes the youthful bachelor life is not for him anymore in from the show “Louie”, and the character Lindsay in “Arrested Development” is struggling to accept the fact that she is getting older and is no longer turning heads. All three of these shows portray negative stereotypes, making belittling generalizations of the older adults and aging (Hillier & Barrow, 37). These stereotypes
We like to label things in our culture. Those over the age of 65 are called senior citizens. Those under the age of 18 are called children. Anyone falling in between those ages are considered adults and there are certain expectations placed on that demographic. Adults are the backbone of society, responsible for basically just about everything. Television reflects that responsibility, as adults are usually portrayed as hard-working, career-oriented, and often married and raising children. With television reinforcing these expectations, many young people have probably felt that they need to grow into these roles and become responsible adults. A decade ago, however, NBC’s sitcom Seinfeld debuted challenging these social preconceptions of what an adult should be.
This paper will be about two movies that have older adults for the lead character. The paper will focus on the roles of the older adults, stereotypes, and age norms. The first movie chosen will be about Still Alice. The second movie chosen will be about I’ll see you in my dreams. Each movie will be presented and examined in terms of the different medical disorders the lead characters experienced and facts about the conditions. Also, comparisons will be made concerning the movies chosen.
Stigmas and stereotypes plague modern day society. Stigmas regarding race, gender, and religion are publically fought over and receive a great deal of attention; however, stereotypes concerning old age are frequently overlooked; perceived to be just a part of our normal society. Old age is an accomplishment and an individual should be proud and ought to celebrate his or her milestones. Birthday cards often undermine the value of old age, and make-up companies, magazines, and both mainstream and social media generally discount older individuals unless advertising ways to feel, act, or appear younger. One man who defies the stigma of old age and rejoices in it is my Grandfather Marvin. Marvin is a seventy-seven-year-old male who lives in Oskaloosa,
As society ages they tend to rely on a television for their news updates or anything really. Plenty of the aged population spends several hours in front of a television, and it has shown to affect the aged population drastically. According to Edwin Lyngar, in his article, “I lost my dad to fox news: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria,” he claimed to have lost his dad to “the despair of Fox News” (Lyngar 1) which he refers to as the “Fox Effect” (Lyngar 2). Many viewers are attached to the television because plenty of shows have caught their interest; However, these shows are changing their perspective. Viewers watch a show or news, and begin to imagine what if what they just watched would happen to them in the outside world. Cultivated watchers suddenly feel as if danger is constantly surrounding them.
The timeless Coming-of-Age tale is often a triumphant one in which the kid breaks free of the fallacious adults, but are they really so one dimensional? Do kids really represent truth and the adults fallacy? How does the audience perceive the power struggle? What part does the older generation play in this genre besides a stock villain? What can these characters tell the audience about the ideals of their own generations? Although seemingly at odds with each other, the adults and youth in coming-of-age films are similar to each other and can represent two sides of the viewers themselves.
are forced to live off of. What happens if there is not enough to go
Of the top ten network television shows (excluding reality shows and game shows) for March 5-11, 2001; all ten portrayed men over forty while only seven portrayed women over forty. There were twenty-five males and seven females over forty. For every one female, t...
This essay will look at the different ways in which young people are portrayed in the media. It will focus on how the idea of childhood innocence has been challenged by the media and rather than ‘little angels’ children are now seen as ‘little devils’ in the public eye. By looking at ‘The Bulger Case of 1993’ we can see where the idea of ‘little devils’ and children as evil beings began. It will examine why media stories of young people are focused much more on negative aspects such as crime and gang culture rather than positive ones. It will also look at how television programmes such as ‘Teen Mom’ and ‘Skins’ portray the youth of today and whether these programmes come across as a positive or negative portrayal of teenagers. The idea of a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ will also be examined and whether the way the media portrays children can be harmful to the construction of their identities and possibly lead to alienation.
Negative cultural attitudes continue to also attribute to the notion that older people are sexless impairing the idea that one could have enjoyable sex later in life (Deacon, Minichiello, & Plummer, 1995). Gerontological research has been able to show that having positive attitudes and being knowledgeable towards a person’s sexuality influences a more positive sexual experience in later life. Deacon et al. (1995) reviewed psychosocial and physiological factors that influenced sexual expressions of older people and found that both cultures and physiological factors were key determinants. “Although sex roles have changed and there has been more freedom of sexual expression since the 1960s, the stereotypes that older people are physically