I have thought for a while about how to rnspoed to the issue of inappropriate greeting cards. In the big scheme of things I feel the cards, while reflecting some people’s view of women (otherwise they would not sell) are merely one small element of society’s overall view of older people. We, in the west, live in cultures which revere the young and the beautiful, and anyone past retirement age becomes invisible. Just consider any apart of the media to see that; where are the older people and what are they doing?Now with ‘the baby boomers’ reaching this age there is a chance to change society’s attitude as has occurred, to a large extent, with other groups such as disabled people or those of non Anglo-Celtic cultures.I have never been shy about saying how old I am until I retired, at age 60, after a lifetime working in education, which culminated in a position as principal of a school. Once retired, I found when answering the question, ‘What do you do?’ with, ‘I am retired’, was not going to lead to any interaction. When I went back to university to study for a Bachelor of Visual Arts I was back in the scene as a person again.My uncle who is 92 tells those with whom he interacts in a range of capacities, with ‘Don’t treat me like I am old!’ This is not because he does not know that the number of years he has left are numbered, it is because he wants to be treated as a person; yes we are older but we don’t want to become invisible.In the most part people over 60 become invisible, certainly in the media. There is a very small change shown in a couple of recent movies such as ‘The Exotic Marigold Hotel’ or ‘Quartet’. In these movies the characters are shown to be people capable of functioning and even of love, although not yet sex! I am not sure the movie world is up to that yet! Let’s see more of Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and so on. Maybe movies may lead other sections of the media to be interested in this large group, apart from the fact that the country can’t afford so many old people; but that is another topic!Back to the cards; I have never bought such a card, but I have looked at some with my women friends of similar ages and we have found some to laugh at amongst ourselves. I must say that most of them are not only not funny they are not even clever, but we have found some in which we could share a few laughs. However I have never bought or sent one.Perhaps when the media becomes interested in achievement outside of the culture of celebrity, cards such as those shown here will no longer have a market. Meanwhile we have to live our lives and show those around us just what we older women can do and be at this stage of our lives. Aren't we lucky to have this chance.