‘And Just Like That’ Needs to Stop Enabling Carrie’s Ageism

Throughout Hollywood history, an older actress was often only given a few options for roles: She could play a matron (Doubt), an abhorrent sexual predator (Notes on a Scandal, Misery), or a horror’s hag, a figure that goes as far back in Hollywood’s history as 1950’s Sunset Boulevard and still persists today (2022’s Barbarian and X). If none of those appealed, she could bow out of the limelight once she was “past her prime,” in the hopes that no paparazzi would photograph her aging face—because a woman's wrinkles could not be captured without ridicule.

It’s taken decades for Hollywood to open itself up to older actresses, as it has done in recent years. But there’s still much work to do, as one of the most prominent platforms for older women on TV proves. Despite the over-50 stars of And Just Like That experiencing the pressures placed on aging women and the misogynistic undertones of this relentless judgment, the Max comedy is still stuck in Hollywood’s old ways. Only a handful of episodes into the Sex and the City sequel’s second season, the show has already made its refusal to grow on this front plain, and its most recent episode solidifies this persistent, self-perpetuating ageism.

In Episode 4, which premiered on Max last Thursday, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) comes head-to-head with her mentor, retired Vogue editor Enid (Candice Bergen). While Carrie claims to have nothing but respect for Enid, the women always end up dueling with each other whenever they cross paths. Carrie is appalled when Enid invites her to the launch party for Vivante, a magazine focusing on “women our age”—that is, over 60. As Enid repeats the phrase, Carrie’s face tells all: She doesn’t see herself in this demographic and secretly shudders at the thought of belonging to it.

So begins an episode teeming with Carrie’s unbridled ageism. We watch as she avoids women at the event who use walking aids and scuffles around the room of accomplished, glamorous older women, refusing to see herself as one of them. In typical jaded-New-Yorker fashion, Carrie only sees the benefits of Vivante as a platform when Gloria Steinem (playing herself) gives a speech about it; the iconic member of the feminist movement is an older woman Carrie is happy to compare herself to. Steinem’s words echo Enid’s manifesto for the magazine: Older women are largely overlooked in the media. But it isn’t until Steinem exclaims that “aging is the new frontier” that Carrie changes her tune about Vivante, which she’d previously scoffed at as a “retirement magazine.”

Carrie is not the only character to hold onto her ageist beliefs. Her new best friend Seema (Sarita Choudhury), also in her fifties, encourages Carrie to hold onto her reservations about Enid’s start-up. Seema pushes Carrie to go to Enid's party, but not to support the woman she claims to idolize; instead, Seema wants Carrie to convince Enid to promote her book. She also arms Carrie with “advice”: Make sure not to be photographed next to “women with walkers,” as “that would be a brand killer.”

That Seema is meant to inhabit the Samantha role feels especially disappointing in this context. As the token older woman in the group, Samantha (Kim Cattrall) always platformed the sexual needs of an aging demographic on Sex and the City. Throughout the seasons refused to bow to Carrie’s ageism. When Carrie was repulsed at Samantha’s choice to date a man in his seventies, she retorted: “all cats feel the same in the dark.”

Arguably the most memorable Samantha moment in the original series is when she calls Carrie out for one of her most out-of-touch opinions (besides her belief that bisexuals don't exist, but that’s another discussion). In a Season 4 episode, Carrie tells Samantha that “it's time for ladies [our age] to cover it up.” Samantha’s rebuttal is seared into the brain of any avid SATC watcher: “I will wear whatever and blow whomever I want, as long as I can stand and kneel.” Throughout the remainder of the series and its two follow-up movies, Samantha kept her vow.

It took until this week’s episode of And Just Like That for Carrie to finally end up on Samantha’s page—or at least, claim that she had. Thanks to Steinem’s enlightening comments, Carrie admits that she has to work on her own internalized ageism. However, her intention to put in that quickly falls by the wayside; immediately after she states this, she mocks Enid’s current boyfriend, telling her to “never date a man that old.” This comes despite Carrie’s previous proclivity for older men, including her dead husband, Mr. Big (Chris Noth). Her inconsistency makes the moment when Enid rebuffs her proposal to contribute to Vivante all the more sweet. Carrie is not only fickle, but she’s also clearly not going to absorb Enid and Gloria’s philosophy.

Among the many reasons why Carrie’s discomfort around aging doesn’t sit well is that the cast of And Just Like That has spoken about the difficulties older actresses face. Kristin Davis (who plays Charlotte) opened up to The Telegraph last month about her liposuction, explaining that she struggled with seeing photos of her younger self online. “It’s a challenge to remember that you don't have to look like that,” she said. In a 2021 interview with Vogue, Parker said she had decided against plastic surgery, despite industry pressures. “I know what I look like,” she said. “I have no choice. What am I going to do about it? Stop aging? Disappear?” In a conversation with Howard Stern in June, Parker also sympathized with older women who feel the need to look younger.

And Just Like That’s commitment to the ageist rhetoric that its stars speak out against feels particularly regressive in comparison with its contemporaries. While the internet still spits bile at any woman past 40, Hollywood is finally becoming a much more exciting landscape for older actresses. Last year alone, we saw Emma Thompson go on an orgasmic journey of self-discovery (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande), Jean Smart become the center of many characters’ sexual desire in Hacks, and the women of Book Club (including Candice Bergen) return for a sequel celebrating their sex lives. Even in Succession, thirtysomething Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) consistently held a flame for Gerri (J. Smith Cameron). No longer are older women left playing sexless matrons by default; they are now often the objects of desire for people of all ages.

The team behind And Just Like That has worked hard to undo much of Sex and the City’s problematic past, including its homogenous depiction of New York and binary approach to sexuality and gender. But ageism seems to be the hill the franchise will happily die on. The writers would do well to remember which demographic their leading women belong to before including these hypocritical, stereotypical “jokes.” So far, Carrie’s growth this season appears limited to poaching her first egg, as she still hasn’t managed to challenge her own biases.