Many of us who used to watch Sex and the City all those years ago, have been in the throes of excitement as the latest season of the show premiered last week (though technically this is a whole new series that’s meant to be an extension of the original). As the first two episodes of And Just Like That... dropped, social media was shook by all that happened. But more importantly, the show was a reminder of how unusual it is for viewers to see women over 40 (or 50 in this case) on our screens.
It was something actress Kristin Davis, who plays Charlotte, made mention of in with the The Sunday Times newspaper.
“After 40 people think you’re done. No, no, nooo!” She said in her interview.
She went on to speak about how everyone seemed to want to have a say on the appearance of the three women who star in the show. “Everyone wants to comment, pro or nay or whatever, on our hair and our faces and our this and our that. The level of intensity of it was a shock," she said.
It was clear, she said, how women over 40 needed more representation and there was a “total gap” in that area in the entertainment industry.
“As a single [mum] myself, life is not over at all, and it’s so ridiculous that we do not have more representation,” she said. “I feel like people have this idea that you’re done, you’re finished, your world view is done, your friends are done and that your relationships are done.”
Davis's comments come after Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays Carrie in the show, about ageism in Vogue magazine last month.
"There's so much misogynist chatter in response to us that would never. Happen. About. A. Man," Parker said. "'Grey hair, grey hair, grey hair. Does she have grey hair?'”
“It almost feels as if people don't want us to be perfectly okay with where we are, as if they almost enjoy us being pained by who we are today, whether we choose to age naturally and not look perfect, or whether you do something if that makes you feel better,” she said. “I know what I look like. I have no choice. What am I going to do about it? Stop ageing? Disappear?”
As Davis goes on to say in The Sunday Times, it seems all women over 40 are lumped together.
“I think once you hit 40, you and everyone else — everyone up to Betty White, and I say Betty White because she’s turning 100 next year — are in the same group," she said.
A number of actresses have previously about the ageism that exists in Hollywood. Geena Davis who set up the said: "Film roles really did start to dry up when I got into my 40s.” And actor Maggie Gyllenhaal spoke about how by Hollywood’s standards she was “over the hill” when she turned 37.
The statistics back this up. A that examined more than 1700 characters across the 100 top grossing films of 2020 found the percentage of female characters in their 30s was 29 per cent compared to 16 per cent in their 40s. Only six per cent included female characters 60 and older.
For a show like And Just Like That to have not one but multiple women over 50 makes it stand out, not just for the amazing outfits the women wear, but because we see women with grey hair and wrinkles (groundbreaking for Hollywood) - allowing at least for some representation for women over a certain age.
But yes, let’s not get carried away, these are still very privileged wealthy white women and we still have a long way to go before see women of colour in such roles.
For now, it’s good that at least one very big show is featuring women after 50, and for that alone it’s worth seeking out.
