The Golden Bachelor is Exactly The Type of TV Show The U.S. Needs

Ageism is a never-ending battle here

When I was growing up my sister used to tell me old people scared her. Then she’d laugh. She was barely a teenager when she first said that.

But she repeated it into her teenage years.

Now that she’s a fully-fledged adult, she still says it.

I didn’t agree with her back then and I don’t agree with her now. We have many years between us and were raised differently. I was half-raised by my grandparents and I worshipped them. Unfortunately, she was not exposed to the same life experiences as I was, and I think that missing element fed her fear.

If you think about it, her fear wasn’t of old people, but rather, of the unknown. With three grandparents who died before she reached the age of 20 and the fourth too old to acknowledge her while also living in another part of the country, she wasn’t exposed to that population. So she feared it.

Technically, it’s a common human response.

But it’s a prevalent one.

As I get older myself, I see this fear of senior citizens all around me. It’s so pervasive there’s even a scientific name for it:

Gerontophobia: the irrational fear of the elderly or aging

According to Wikipedia, this fear can be caused by the harmful stereotypes portrayed by the media.

I know exactly what Wikipedia is referring to. As a middle-aged woman who’s careening toward “old age”, it’s been challenging existing in this world now that I’ve passed the peak of life. The world was kind to me when I had smooth, unblemished skin, could fit into a size 2, and perky everything.

That hasn’t changed much in the past two decades. Ads, social media, and the content we see on our screens are full of young people. We’re trained to believe the only population worth knowing is the young. Our eyes are oriented to look past anyone who doesn’t fit that description.

Senior citizens are often portrayed as “other.”

I’ve especially noticed this in the horror genre, which is where I focus my fiction writing. Think about horror movies where older people are the main characters. How are they portrayed? Are they the scary monsters? Are they creepy? Do they act and behave in ways that seem unnatural?

Think about some of the more popular horror movies from the past two decades: Old, The Visit, Don’t Breathe, Barbarian, and The Taking of Deborah Logan. What are the common themes of the older characters? After watching these it’s clear that older = scary.

Seniors have sagging, wrinkled, and spotted skin, thinning, white hair, strange expressions, and an abnormally slower speed. Right? Wrong! And yet, this is how they are constantly depicted in these movies. It’s a shame that such little respect is given to a population that offers so much to younger generations.

But perhaps there is hope.

Enter ABC. Have you heard the news? ABC is premiering a twist on their popular TV shows “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”. It’s a new version called “The Golden Bachelor” and it’s a dating reality show focused on seniors. In this incarnation, 72-year-old bachelor Gerry Turner, a retiree and widower, will be searching for a new companion. And he will be searching for her in the 60–75 age range only.

I’m excited to see a show like this premiere. It’s bold, it’s audacious, it’s…controversial? Yikes – there have already been multiple debates on the concept. People have commented things like “I’m glad the [golden] bachelor is at least good-looking”…with the implication there is no other reason to watch it.

Again, because he is “old”. Because the U.S. has an impaired culture that believes life only happens to twenty and thirty-something-year-olds.

Think about it. Few American TV shows have focused on main characters older than 50. I remember Golden Girls and Murder She Wrote. Those TV shows and a few others were from 40 years ago!

And what about American reality TV shows featuring people past the age of 50? Good luck finding any. It’s disappointing.

Something has to change. The taboos associated with getting older need to be dismantled. And the stereotypes about senior citizens need to be shattered.

I keep telling my younger brethren how amazing life is once you hit middle age. Celebrate it. Don’t fall for what the media would have you believe.

My sister’s mom, now in her 70s, called the idea behind The Golden Bachelor refreshing. A widow herself, she’s glad there’s something out there that speaks to her generation. She can’t wait to see its premiere this week.

You can catch The Golden Bachelor both on ABC and Hulu. It’s on ABC Thursday nights at 7 pm CDT and will follow on Hulu the next day.