The broadcaster's comment on all this was revealing. She remarked that she was surprised that the producers had allowed the episode, because in her experience they were always saying things like: "You know, you really need to wear your hair ______" (fill in the blank: longer, shorter, lighter, darker, curlier, pulled back, put up, etc).

 Nothing points up ageing skin like a really dark hair dye, which some people (male as well as female) use to cover the gray. Beauticians tell us that as our skin tones fade with age, we need softer color in both makeup and hair. So the makeup people and the television producers decide that older women need paler hair, and indeed "faded blonde" fills that bill. It is hard for me to believe that the fake, all-blonde color is an improvement to a woman's looks, however, when Mother Nature provides in the natural graying process both texture and coloration that are far more interesting.

It's certainly every woman's right to wear her hair exactly as she wants, and there are a great many of us who prefer not to go gray. But somehow when you can watch the news almost anywhere in the country and never see gray haired woman, you've got to wonder that they have all chosen to color their hair. Have the producers caused these women to fear for their jobs if they go gray?

Do the psychologists tell us that we prefer listening to older men over listening to older women? Has anybody tested the theory? Has anybody ever stood up and told those producers that looking young isn't nearly as important as being able to deliver good reportage? A good voice, a good mind, and a certain photogenic quality would surely be sufficient to draw viewers. I know lots of older women who are every bit as photogenic now as when they were twenty.

My great grandmother was beautiful at 20. She was also beautiful at 92: different, but still beautiful, and the camera loved her. We have several photographic studies of her done by one of her daughter's neighbors, a professional photographer who found the old lady fascinating and lovely. Being photogenic, it seems to me, depends on several variables. Certainly beauty and good bones don't hurt. Neither does self-confidence. But often the truly photogenic seem to have a certain inner light: a look in the eyes, perhaps, or a great smile. In any event one needn't be young and firm and generating sexual heat to be considered beautiful, no matter what the powers in the TV world tell us. 

One producer to whom I spoke seemed to feel that an older woman could not possibly have the energy to keep up with younger reporters. I have to question this, since most of the older women I know run circles around their own children. Not only do they have energy; they have experience and focus, and are not as likely to waste energy haring off on a tangent. Neither are they as likely to be distracted from their professions as are younger women who are still dealing with learning how to run a household, have a career, and possibly manage small children as well.

From all I have seen and heard, younger reporters on television qualify more as "readers" of the news. Gathering news or chasing down a story seems less and less the function of a newscaster, these days. Reading the news on television must look like a glamorous job to all those young women who are majoring in broadcast journalism in our colleges. I hope that someone has told them that when they hit 40, they will be hanging on if not by their fingernails, by their plastic surgeons and Clairol bottles.

As for me, I would gladly forsake my usual nightly news program to tune in any station that dares to place an older, gray-haired woman in an anchorperson's seat. Until then, we'll hold dear the memory of Pauline Frederick (although she, too, did not go really gray), and hope that her accomplishments will one day inspire the powers that be to grow brave and hire an unimproved older woman.

©Julia Sneden for SeniorWomen.com

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