Image it: I used to be just a little woman at my grandma’s home, watching the NBC comedy about Miami-based greatest mates turned roommates Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), Rose Nylund (Betty White), Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan) and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) navigating life as widows or divorcées. They’d discuss intercourse, getting older, males, menopause, womanhood, race and LGBTQ points — typically over cheesecake — in a method that ladies of that age had by no means been seen doing on tv earlier than.
Brief grey hair, shoulder pads and communal dwelling with gossipy catch-ups across the kitchen desk or on the lanai. That was my imaginative and prescient of rising older, formed by my ’80s TV training from The Golden Women.
The present, which premiered 40 years in the past, on Sept. 14, 1985, was an instantaneous hit. For six of the seven years it ran, it was within the Nielsen scores’ prime 10 listing of most-watched reveals. It gained back-to-back Emmys for Excellent Comedy Sequence in 1986 and 1987, and every of the 4 stars gained particular person performing Emmys. Presently, The Golden Women sits within the No. 11 spot on YouGov’s hottest all-time TV reveals through information collected this yr.
What I didn’t know then was that the ladies being bought to the viewers as late-in-life senior residents weren’t truly that outdated. Marketed as being of their golden years, the characters — unbiased girls with fulfilling lives and friendships — had been truly of their 50s when the present started, except Dorothy’s mother, Sophia. In actual life, McClanahan was simply 51, Arthur and White had been 63, and Getty was 62.
I’m removed from the one one who thought that. A meme that usually pops up in my Fb timeline reveals a solid picture alongside the surprisingly younger age of every character. It has led to a pattern of recent girls having the conclusion that they’re in the identical period as the women, and together with it normally comes the statement that, wow, girls of their 50s and 60s certain look completely different in 2025.
Blanche, Dorothy and Rose had been unbiased girls who leaned on one another to work out life’s challenges — typically across the kitchen desk. (Alice S. Corridor/NBCU Picture Financial institution/NBCUniversal through Getty Photographs)
When it first aired, the groundbreaking present supplied a uncommon glimpse at girls of a sure age, who had been typically invisible onscreen in that period. The style and sweetness mirrored the period, however the unfiltered characters nonetheless really feel forward of their time.
In the present day, The Golden Women has grow to be a generational reference for a lot of girls over 50 — a reminder of how dramatically getting older and society’s expectations round it have advanced.
A cultural touchstone for midlife girls
The concept the mates who turned chosen household seemed and acted a lot older than they had been has come up in conversations for Yahoo’s Unapologetically collection, which options interviews with girls over 40 speaking about getting older and confidence. Time after time, individuals reference The Golden Women as a marker for what they thought midlife would appear to be — or the concept that getting older is completely different from what they thought it might be.
Self-help guru Mel Robbins instructed Yahoo that The Golden Women formed her early expectations of what life after 50 can be like.
“I assumed 50 can be time to get retired, time to start out trying outdated, time to be irrelevant to society as a result of, you realize, it is in regards to the 20-year-old celebrities, and we’re just like the outdated mayors getting thrown out into the corral,” the bestselling creator and motivational podcast host mentioned in June.
For Robbins, the other was true in actual life. She feels extra comfy in her pores and skin at 56 than ever earlier than.
Mel Robbins feels she’s simply getting warmed up in her 50s. (Scott Eisen/Getty Photographs for Mel Robbins)
TV character Kelly Rizzo, 46, expressed an identical sentiment about how her “goalposts” have shifted.
“Twenty-five years in the past, 45 seemed very completely different than it does at this time,” she mentioned. “Now [that I’m here], it is a very completely different expertise. … After which once I look [ahead to 65] — to me proper now that also appears a bit outdated — however once I get there, I am certain occasions will even change just a little bit extra.”
In terms of The Golden Women age meme, Rizzo blamed the period’s style and sweetness norms for making girls look extra matronly than they do at this time.
“It’s the hair!” she mentioned. “There was an expectation that once you’re in your 50s, you costume a sure method and look a sure method. Now, there [are] actually no guidelines anymore.”
These altering attitudes aren’t simply anecdotal. They’re mirrored in analysis on how girls understand themselves throughout generations.
Yahoo’s personal YouGov polling on antiaging tradition in Might confirmed that 55% of girls aged 40 and older reported being “not very” or “under no circumstances” involved about wrinkles. It’s not nearly appearances, both. Based on a 2018 AARP examine of girls ages 21 to 72, 76% mentioned they believed that “outdated age” begins at 70 years outdated — a far cry from 50.
J.Lo, Blanche and the talk over ageless icons
Nonetheless, for girls over 50 within the highlight, there are expectations, whether or not they’re spoken or not, to keep up youthful appearances and be sexually interesting.
A major instance got here when Jennifer Lopez, now 56, carried out the 2020 Tremendous Bowl halftime present, nailing an acrobatic pole dance routine whereas sporting a low-cut, curve-hugging metallic bodysuit. On the time, side-by-side picture comparisons had been fabricated from the almost 51-year-old tripled risk performer alongside a equally aged Golden Lady Blanche in a conservative V-neck prime with silver detailing on the shoulders.
When Jennifer Lopez carried out on the 2020 Tremendous Bowl, she was nearly 51 — the age of Blanche’s character and a world aside. (Deal with Sport/Getty Photographs)
Not that the comparisons had been honest. Did Blanche have her personal skincare line? On-call hairstylist? Private chef? Coach? Because the “50 has modified” conversations swirled, there was a protection of Blanche.
When the present aired, Blanche epitomized intercourse attraction. She was overflowing with confidence, comfy together with her physique and sexuality. She had suitors galore, bragging onscreen at one level to having had 143 relationships, and rocking a silk nightie like no person’s enterprise.
There have been related conversations across the fashion-forward and sexually empowered Intercourse and the Metropolis characters Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) coming into their Golden Women period on And Simply Like That…
Davis was requested in regards to the comparability on the In the present day present in April and mentioned, “Thank God” girls are getting older higher at this time than they did then. “No offense to anybody.”
“I assumed [the Golden Girls] had been 80,” she mentioned, including, “Typically it’s actually good to recollect these items … which can be simply a part of the large image of what society is telling us to count on from our lives. And it’s not true.”
That led The Golden Women creator Susan Harris to deal with the subject.
“I’ve to take problem with the truth that anybody makes comparisons to these different reveals,” she mentioned in August. “The Golden Women actually spoke to what occurs with older girls. The opposite reveals had been nearly younger girls. I simply don’t assume there’s a comparability.”
Proudly owning your individual journey
Regardless of how girls at this time select to age — whether or not it’s going grey or utilizing beauty enhancements — the present stays a cultural touchstone that goes past unhealthy hairstyles, wrinkles and shoulder pads. The Golden Women was about placing girls on the middle and celebrating their company over their sexuality.
Paulina Porizkova, who has grow to be an vital voice in redefining getting older and sometimes makes use of the hashtag #betweenjloandbettywhite when she posts on Instagram about it, thinks that the affect is extra private.
“To me, what an older girl seemed like was my grandma and my mother,” she tells Yahoo. “These are the primary girls [who] characterize what getting older is like for a lady to you. And my grandmother was just a little outdated girl by the point she was 50. And my mom is 79 and really removed from being an outdated girl. It’s totally particular person.”
Paulina Porizkova is attempting to make getting older look higher. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Photographs for The New York Occasions)
Rizzo mentioned her personal mom is in her 80s, however seems like she’s in her 50s and acts like she’s in her 30s.
“So long as you keep that sense of self and youthful spirit, and do not let your age outline you in that method, I believe you’ll be able to at all times be as younger as you wish to really feel,” she mentioned.
What Porizkova sees as the problem is that it’s arduous for girls to age with out judgment.
“If you go into menopause, society is simply not involved in what else you are able to do, and so that you’re dismissed, whether or not you look good otherwise you look unhealthy, whether or not you will have grey permed hair or lengthy blonde flowing locks,” she says. “[However], I believe that’s the place the occasions are altering a bit. We’re kicking up the fuss. Us menopausal girls are usually not gonna give up. I am like: I am not executed but.”
Porizkova’s hope is that youthful girls don’t see rising older as a horrible destiny that necessitates going to extremes to flee it.
“We have to make getting older look higher,” she says. “That is what I am attempting to do on my finish — make it appear to be enjoyable as a result of it’s. It is outrageously great.”
That makes me assume: Possibly the imaginative and prescient I had as a baby of these 4 gray-haired however loyal mates isn’t that far off. The norm-challenging unbiased girls are a reminder to embrace getting older by yourself phrases. And to have extra enjoyable — and cheesecake.
