Very sad news to report: Estelle Getty, widely known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls, died today at age 84.
I’m a huge Golden Girls fan, and I maintain that it’s one of the best feminist shows ever created: It’s got an all-female cast; they women are all older and therefore outside of traditional beauty norms; the women have independent lives that involve men but don’t revolve around them; and the characters are funny and smart (with the possible exception of Rose, but she’s smart in her own little way). Where else have you seen a popular sitcom (or any show) that revolves around women who actually kind of look like average women, who aren’t young and fabulous and beautiful, who have interests other than finding male companionship, who put their female friendships first, and who have sex after menopause? More to the point, where can you find a TV show or movie that revolves around women like that, and those women aren’t the butt of the joke?
It’s certainly a rarity, and Golden Girls remains a bright spot in TV history. Estelle Getty was a class act.
She did good. And here’s to being Sophia when I’m old.