Older characters on television are not the philosophers of our age, the sages or medicine women of past times. No, the elderly of our time are portrayed as frail and bumbling creatures who dodder along doing nothing, understanding nothing, aware of nothing, muttering . . .
Negative stereotypes exaggerate isolated characteristics and ignore positive characteristics entirely. So older people are portrayed as slow, but not as wise or patient. We see them as ill, but not as quite in charge of their own lives. We are reminded constantly that they forget things, but not a single note is made of the fact that everyone else does as well.
— Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years