Where Are the Real Golden Girls? The Media's Invisible Older Women
Copyright 2025 The Golden Life Community; Artist Kathy Tarochione
I had an interesting conversation with my friend's 22-year-old granddaughter last week. She called to tell me about a "revolutionary" new Podcast featuring – get this – a 50-year-old woman with gray hair. She was genuinely excited about this "groundbreaking representation."
Bless Her Heart
I didn't have the courage to tell her that at 79, I consider 50 practically adolescent. I also didn't mention that from where I sit (usually in my recliner with "Gladys," my oxygen tank), this so-called representation of "older women" in the media looks about as realistic as those pharmaceutical commercials where arthritis sufferers frolic through meadows after taking a magic pill.
So today, I'm asking: Where are the REAL Golden Girls?
Copyright 2025 The Golden Life Community; Artist Kathy Tarochione
The Fantasy vs. My Reality
Here's what media tells us "older women" look like:
Silver-haired goddesses with smooth skin and invisible joints
Energetic grandmas playing tennis and traveling the world
Wise Crones dispensing advice while effortlessly baking cookies
Women concerned primarily with superficial wrinkles while their bodies work flawlessly
And here's my reality at 79:
A wig collection because Long COVID took most of my hair
Fingers twisted from rheumatoid arthritis that make opening a bottle of water a strategic operation
A heart that occasionally decides to dance to salsa when the rest of me is trying to waltz
Severe COPD that turns breathing—something most take for granted—into conscious work
A relationship with my oxygen concentrator more reliable than most marriages
Brain fog that drifts in like coastal weather when my oxygen levels drop, turning simple thoughts into puzzles
Fighting isolation by using the Internet to bring the world to my home when my body refuses to take me there
An extra 30 pounds courtesy of steroid treatments, a gift that keeps on giving
Movement confined to the 40-foot radius of my oxygen cord, making driving and exercise distant memories
Incontinence products with better technology than NASA
A Soul filled with passion and a desire to serve aging women despite the physical limitations that try to contain me
Yet despite these challenges, I'm still here. Still laughing. Still living. Still having worthwhile thoughts and experiences. So why am I invisible in the media landscape?
Copyright 2025 The Golden Life Community; Artist Kathy Tarochione
The Missing Demographics
Let's talk numbers for a moment. According to the Population Reference Bureau, the number of Americans ages 65 and older will more than double from 46 million to over 98 million by 2060. Women continue to outlive men, meaning a significant portion of these older Americans are women.
Add in the fact that about 85% of older adults have at least one chronic health condition, and about 60% have at least two, according to the National Council on Aging.
So where are all these women in our media? Why do the "older women" we see represented fall into such narrow categories?
1. The ageless wonder (who clearly has excellent genes and possibly excellent surgeons)
2. The adorable, slightly dotty grandmother (played by an actress 15 years younger than the character)
3. The bitter old woman (because apparently having health challenges makes you automatically miserable)
4. The invisible background character (typically with no storyline of her own)
What we don't see: Women like me with oxygen tanks, mobility aids, medication routines, and still living full lives with humor, sex drives, dreams, and opinions.
Why This Matters
You might wonder why I care. Shouldn't I just be grateful to be alive and not worry about whether I see myself on TV?
Here's why it matters:
When the media erases women like me, it reinforces the idea that once you're old and sick, you should disappear. It suggests that the only acceptable way to age is to somehow not appear to age at all. It tells younger generations that certain bodies aren't worth seeing or hearing from.
It also leaves women like me feeling profoundly alone. Living with severe COPD for 14 years has been a constant struggle that few understand. When my husband died 15 years ago, I had no models for how to be a widow with health problems who wasn't just sitting around waiting to die. When Long COVID took my hair, I had nowhere to turn for images of women embracing beautiful baldness or partial hair loss. When my heart condition was diagnosed, there were no characters in movies Podcasting me how to incorporate this new reality into my life with grace and humor.
I had to write my own script. And while that built character (along with an impressive collection of emergency medications), it shouldn't have to be that way.
Copyright 2025 The Golden Life Community; Artist Kathy Tarochione
What Real Representation Would Look Like
Imagine turning on your TV and seeing women who actually look like us – oxygen tanks, mobility scooters, medication organizers and all. Picture a romantic storyline where the lead character happens to have arthritis but it's not her defining characteristic. She's desirable, complex, and fully human despite (or perhaps because of) her health challenges.
What if we saw women in their 70s and 80s with rich, nuanced storylines that went beyond "sick grandma waiting to die" or "inspirational elder who exists only to dispense wisdom"? What if friend groups on screen included members with different abilities, and everyone just naturally adapted without making it a Very Special Episode?
And heaven forbid, what if the media acknowledged that passion doesn't expire at 65? That intimate scenes between older adults could be portrayed with dignity and genuine desire rather than as the punchline to a joke?
This isn't just about feeling included. It's about Podcasting younger generations that getting older with health challenges isn't a sentence to invisibility. It's about creating a roadmap for the millions of us figuring out how to navigate our complex health journeys without examples to follow. It's about understanding that a diagnosis—whether it's COPD, arthritis, or heart disease—isn't the end of your story. It's just another plot twist in a life that continues to unfold in beautiful, messy, glorious ways.
Why I'm Launching Golden Living LIVE: An Oxygen-Assisted Revolution
Copyright 2025 The Golden Life Community; Artist Kathy Tarochione
Let me tell you what we don't need: another damn podcast about "aging gracefully" hosted by a perky 50-year-old who thinks gray hair and reading glasses count as "elderly."
What we need is a Podcast about what aging actually looks like. Not the sanitized Cialis-commercial version where silver-haired couples frolic on beaches. The real version—where I sit with my oxygen tank (whom I've named Gladys, because you might as well be on first-name terms with something attached to you 24/7), trying to open pill bottles with arthritis-twisted fingers while my heart decides to randomly salsa dance inside my chest.
Why am I launching Golden Living LIVE at 79? Because the constant barrage of negative news is literally making us sick. Research Podcasts frequent consumption of distressing headlines is directly linked to increased anxiety and depression in adults over 55. During the pandemic alone, 19% of older adults reported worse depression and 28% reported increased anxiety—with negative news being a major contributor.
And here's the kicker: it's not just making us sad. Negative news triggers our body's "fight or flight" response, releasing stress hormones that lead to rapid heart rate and shallow breathing. For those of us already managing chronic conditions, this constant stress makes it harder to recover.
Copyright 2025 The Golden Life Community; Artist Kathy Tarochione
Even worse? Nine out of ten women over 50 say we're represented "poorly" in media. Two-thirds of us stop feeling represented entirely from age 46 onward. This invisibility isn't just annoying—it increases isolation, erodes self-esteem, and reinforces stereotypes that say we should quietly disappear.
That's why Golden Living LIVE matters. Our Podcast tackles subjects that actually matter to women over 55:
The comedy of trying on pants when you can't see your feet
Dating when you're worried about incontinence
The archaeological expedition that is cleaning out your purse
Why we all have 37 pairs of reading glasses but can never find one
The Great Remote Control Mystery (it's always under your butt)
These subjects aren't trivial—they're the texture of our daily lives. They're the challenges we navigate while CNN obsesses over which politician said what. They're the reality of living with bodies that betray us in new and creative ways each morning.
When Golden Living LIVE launches, I won't be hiding Gladys off-camera. I won't be pretending I can hop out of a chair with ease. Instead, I'll be keeping it real—being the host I wish I'd had 15 years ago when my health journey took its complicated turn.
When you're bombarded with stories about health crises you can't control, economic downturns you can't prevent, and violence you can't stop, you feel powerless. But when you hear another woman laugh about sneezing and peeing a little, or dealing with the same medication side effects you struggle with, you feel seen. Connected. Part of something.
That's the power of Golden Living LIVE Podcast. We're not just entertainment—we're a life raft in a sea of negative news. We're proof that there's joy, humor, and connection to be found even when your body hosts more medical devices than a small hospital wing.
The revolution in aging won't be led by those barely-50 models in Eileen Fisher catalogs. It will be led by those of us with medication organizers larger than our jewelry boxes, who still want to talk about sex, politics, and whether adult diapers can be sexy. (Spoiler: with the right attitude, anything can be sexy.)
I bet you're wondering what a typical episode of Golden Living LIVE Podcast will look like. Well, we'll kick things off with our mantra—"Let's Get GOLDEN!"—followed by a moment of grounding, like chair yoga you can do while hooked up to medical equipment.
From there, we dive into the day's topic. Maybe it's "The Hearing Aid Chronicles: Did You Say 'Cat' or 'Hat'?" (Episode 26), where we'll share hilarious misunderstandings and the strange blessing of selective hearing. Or perhaps "The Battle of the Thermostat" (Episode 33), exploring why we're somehow freezing and sweating simultaneously.
Copyright 2025 The Golden Life Community; Artist Kathy Tarochione
Each episode features three key segments:
First, I'll share something real from my life—like discovering a three-inch chin hair on a friend of mine not realizing it was attached, or the time I got stuck on the floor for an hour after dropping the TV remote and peed in my pants from laughing.
Then, we'll highlight stories from other women in our community. Because nothing builds connection faster than hearing someone else admit they've peed a little when laughing too hard or lost their dentures mid-conversation.
Finally, we'll review products that actually help with these challenges. Not those ridiculous "anti-aging" creams that cost more than my monthly oxygen supply, but practical things like front-closing bras, grab bars that don't scream "nursing home," and incontinence products that actually work.
During the pandemic, I watched too many friends spiral into depression from constant negative news. Their blood pressure rose with every crisis headline. Their anxiety peaked with each new "breaking news" alert. Some stopped leaving their homes altogether, convinced the world had become too dangerous.
What they needed wasn't another update on global catastrophe—they needed to know they weren't alone in their daily struggles. They needed laughter about shared indignities and practical solutions for real problems.
That's the revolutionary power of focusing on what matters to us, rather than what frightens us. When we shift our attention from endless disasters to connections with others like us, something magical happens: we reclaim our joy, our dignity, and our sense of belonging.
So if you're tired of feeling like a forgotten footnote in society's story, join us. If you've ever been talked down to by a doctor half your age, laughed until you leaked, or wondered if you're the only one whose body seems to have its own bizarre agenda—this Podcast is for you.
Together, we're not just surviving our golden years—we're making them shine, tarnish and all.
Because the real golden age isn't about looking perfect or pretending everything's easy. It's about being authentic, finding your community, and laughing your way through challenges that would've crushed your younger self.
That's what it means to Get GOLDEN. So Let's Get GOLDEN together. Oxygen tanks, chin hairs, and all – Tarnished, imperfect, medicated, and absolutely glorious in our authenticity.
Copyright 2025 The Golden Life Community; Artist Kathy Tarochione
Kathy Tarochione is the 79-year-old host of Golden Living LIVE Podcast premiering Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 9:00 AM EST on major streaming platforms. She is the Founder of The Golden Life Community LLC She lives with COPD, Congestive Heart Failure, Rheumatoid Arthritis, A-fib, and Long COVID. She hasn't let any of it stop her yet.
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