Last night while watching a popular general news show on television, the panel of the 30-something hosts were talking about a segment that had just finished.
One of the presenters turned to the other and said, “well, you think that women over 50 are annoying!”
He said it in an off hand remark and to get a laugh but when I heard it, I didn’t hear it as a joke. I heard it as something that was previously discussed or joked about off air, privately and now it was accidentally aired on live television across millions of viewers around Australia.
They laughed and joked and mentioned something else until the other person remembered to say, “I don’t think all women over 50 are annoying” but it was the delay in the response and it felt like something he had to say. Offhand.
I’d hope that someone in the booth had mentioned to him to say something in his earpiece to ensure they didn’t have a backlash about this offhand comment by their female viewers.
“Women over 50 are annoying”.
This statement has been going over in my head all night. One statement, one gender completely whitewashed and tainted as annoying.
Part of me feels that this presenter aired the truth of what many people really think.
This is what is annoying to me. Everyone laughed. No one else – not even the females – made a comment.
Stuff like this stands out to me more than ever before. Women over 50 are also derogatorily known as “Karen”. A term that I’ve had others describe me a few times – to my face and online.
The cynic in me tells me that the reason why we are portrayed as “annoying” is that finally, women in their 50s have found their voice.
They’re not afraid to call out the bullshit or question your actions, intentions or ideas. They’ll face off men, younger or peers and at times, this looks threatening to them so hence the whitewashing that “all women over 50 are annoying”. Younger women are more likely to listen, concede to the man and likely to not make a fuss.
I was so angry that it was the first time I checked Twitter since leaving the platform to see what discussion was online about this and if anyone had picked up on it.
There was none.
Hi there,
just a few words from an unknown person on the internet.
Speaking in terms of a logical mind I’d say that generalizing is always wrong: not necessarily because it’s not ethic but mostly because it is never accurate because of the fact that it’s impossible to assess that 100% of a cluster has a particular behavior or whatever.
Given this, for what I can say “more mature” women are the ones I like the most to talk to (and virtually would like to have fun with) because they care less about the fact they “need to play a part”. I don’t think women should ever “play a part” which is not the one that directly reflects themselves. Easy to say, but 80% of them doesn’t do it until they get fed-up with useless things and people they have experienced in life and decide to “do not give f”.
Going on, it is still wrong to go from a “+50 women are annoying” to “+50 women are all great cause they have found their voice” because it’s simply false because of the abovementioned thing.
My thing is that “having the guts to say what you think” DOES NOT EVER imply you have to be rude because you don’t give a s about anybody else’s opinion, even if you’re right.
That’s not being “free to express”, that’s being “cocky”, whatever gender you are.
Limitless times my girlfriend is right against me and other limitless times I am right towards her. The difference? When she’s right (and sometimes even when she’s not), as many other girls I’ve met or heard about, she tend to be arrogant to the point that my complain is not that “she is right” but that “being right doesn’t mean you can treat me like dog-s*it”.
I’m underline this thing because “in the name of freedom of speech” I see that A LOT of people, especially women, tend to ignore the line between expressing themselves and being deliberately rude and also wanting not to be disliked for that: that’d be hypocrisy.
“Younger women are more likely to listen, concede to the man and likely to not make a fuss.”
Again, like if listening to somebody is something wrong. IT IS NOT AT ANY AGE.
Then it’s not absolutely true that all young women play the part of the “innocent one who does all man’s will and has just to shut up” that’s bulst* in our nowadays young people society. This doesn’t mean it does not exist, it is, just like there’s thousands of men that cannot speak because they’d wake the anger of gods. There’s many different scenarios and assessing the thing that women are always subjugated is firstly wrong and secondly not educational.
First because, if something is just wrong it’s wrong to continuously assess it’s so, basic;
Second because the best part is to try to take always take responsibility. You are with a person who treats you bad? Leave him for the sake of gods! Same thing with jobs..
This is not assessing sexism is not a thing, sexism IS unfortunately a thing, but behaving like you do not have powers is the worst thing to do ever in every context.
Willing others to “read your mind”, which is a very bad attitude I’ve seen too often, is damnly wrong and cannot lead to good results in ANY occasion of your life.
But still, you want your boss to understand you, you want your fiend and boyfriend or whatever to understand what you want. Is there something wrong? Raise hand and calmly explain. They do not get it? Ok, then you start playing more roughly and with more decision. You still don’t get listened to? Think about a B plan, cause life’s too short to be obliged to do or to be close to people you can’t stand.
Just let’s not start from a generalization to another one, but for how you have referred to men, I don’t actually know how much you’d accept such a thought.
Thanks for your response Eric. I believe that the best way to communicate (regardless of age or gender) is to do it such away where you can state your case without getting nasty, slanderous or personal about it.
What got me irritated is this generalisation stated on prime time television with that delayed response to counter that response.
Who knows, maybe it’s also due to seeing that sometimes women over a certain age are discriminated in different ways that I’m now more sensitive to it?
Oh and I’d say if a partner is making you fear speaking or treating you in such a disrespectful way where you’re scared, then that’s not a respectful relationship. It’s time to walk away.