Women's Power Part I

I realized that Women’s Equality Day had passed. It celebrates the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote. It inspired me to create a seven-part Women Power series where I talk about media that celebrates the many facets of women. We are not just one thing. Many moments make us into the women we are today. That is why I am starting a Women's Power Series. With Part I, we will be talking about the following: Women Are Never Too Old For A Second Act.

There is a misconception that older women don’t have much to offer after the age of 50. They often get stuck in tropes like frail caretaker, mean matriarch, or sidelined as a secondary character. However, the following media prove that there is life after 50. Older women can have complex and deep desires and be front and center in their own stories.

Grace and Frankie

Grace and Frankie’s families have been friends for years. However, everything comes to a halt when their husbands, Robert and Sol, announce that they are leaving their wives for each other. Now Grace and Frankie, complete opposites who can’t stand each other, are forced to live together. What chaos will they get into next?

Why Watch: It offers a unique view of older women whose lives were uprooted. I love that Grace and Frankie didn’t take this lying down, though. Instead of staying alone and angry about their husbands leaving, they saw it as an opportunity to reinvent themselves by starting different businesses, dating, making friends, and enjoying life again.

The Extraordinary Dreams of Cynthia Peabody by Lynne Marshall

Cynthia Peabody has plans with the love of her life. They were to grow old together and live out their remaining years in a senior living community. However, Cynthia’s husband dies, and now she is swirling around in the emotion of grief everywhere she turns. Not being able to sleep anymore, she decides to do meditation. However, the meditation leads her to a weird dream where she finds an abandoned dog chained to a fence and looks miserable. Wanting to help the dog, she releases him and then wakes up. Baffled by her dream, she continues with her day-to-day routine until she goes into the backyard and discovers the dog from her dream waiting there for her. Are Cynthia’s dreams becoming real, or is her grief causing her to lose her sense of reality?

Why Read: It focuses more on the subject of grief and growing older. Despite losing her husband and being elderly, Cynthia gradually realizes that her life isn’t over and she has more things to explore. Even if her health is becoming worse, hiding from it won’t help. She strives to make each day count, which is something we should all aspire to do.

Agatha All Along

After her defeat at the hands of the Scarlet Witch, Agatha tries to reclaim her former glory.

Why Watch: Agatha herself could have covered many aspects of womanhood, but I ultimately put the show under this heading. Agatha is a centuries-old witch who craves dominance and power. We see her evil side in her interactions with the Scarlet Witch in WandaVision. However, in Agatha All Along, we see that she has more layers than being a straight-up villain. She has immense loss throughout her years. The Scarlet Witch nearly broke her with her delusions and stripped her of her power. However, Agatha decides to fight back even though she is not in her top form. She realizes that she has to make interesting pacts, friendships, and make herself vulnerable in order to become the witch she once was.

Julie and Julia

Parallel stories of Julia Child and Julie Powell as they make great changes and pivots in their lives.

Why Watch: I must admit that the best part of this movie was when it was focusing on Julia Child. She was a trailblazer who went from a career as a civilian intelligence researcher in WWII to starting a cooking empire. As an older woman, she could have retired and had her husband do all the work like most women did during that time. However, she wanted to pursue her passion. She faced multiple challenges of getting her cooking career off the ground because back then men were mostly chefs, not women, but she strived and rose through the ranks despite all the hardships.

Golden Girls

Four single women in a house in Miami, experiencing their golden years with fun, sassiness, friendship, and spontaneity.

Why Watch: Golden Girls walked so that the other shows and books in this category could run. It was revolutionary in the 1980s to see women over 50 be leads, especially four. Instead of portraying older women as side characters with nothing to do, all the girls lead active lives, careers, independence, and romantic relationships. The show also tackled taboo subjects during that time like HIV/AIDs, LGBTQ, suicide, addiction, social loneliness, deportation, mental health, artificial insemination, and much more. The show tackled each topic with the grace and dignity it deserves.

That’s it for now. Thanks for joining me as I celebrate these wonderful women. They show that aging is nothing to be afraid of and should be embraced. Join me next time as we continue our exploration of women with Part 2: Women Are Survivors.