Carrie Bickmore’s 2023 reveals a wider truth

Carrie Bickmore is one of the most famous women in Australia but there’s something big happening you may have missed.

OPINION

Carrie Bickmore is in her 40s, and right now, she’s never been more popular. It all feels like a middle finger to a lie women have been told for years.

When you’re a woman, you get told about all the things that might make you fat and how you have an expiry date.

You’ll be told that while men can be silver foxes and “age like a fine wine”, you’ll only ever become Mumsie as you age.

You’ll never be described as a bachelorette over the age of 40; instead, you’ll be seen as some sad spinster.

Your best years are in your 20s and maybe in your 30s at a stretch. Ultimately, you spend your life going downhill … but Carrie defies all that nonsense.

She was on The Project for over a decade.

Typically the culture then enforces this idea that women become less valued as they get older.

You’ll see female pop singers sink in popularity just as they enter their 30s, and male entertainers continue to thrive sometimes into their 80s.

You’ll watch as Sonia Kruger is asked how she stays so ageless in almost every interview that she agrees to, but no one will ever ask Karl Stefanovic for skincare tips.

So when Carrie became one of the most talked about people in 2023, that was oddly reassuring. She might not have been a fan of the glaring attention but it was a positive thing for the women of Australia to see.

She thrived in 2023. Picture:Instagram/CarrieBickmore

Carrie Bickmore has had a huge year. Picture: Instagram/CarrieBickmore

Carrie announced her separation from her long-term partner, Chris Walker, in early January of 2023, and from there, she’s been having a moment.

There was chatter about her dating life, her next job opportunity, her fashion choices, and her swimsuit body. It was endless and relentless, but there was a hunger for it.

I’m sure, in some depths of the online world, it was sexist, but the majority was overwhelmingly positive.

Carrie wasn’t treated like a sad woman in her 40s who would be lucky to land any man with a pulse and superannuation.

No, she was seen as Australia’s most eligible Bachelor that anyone would be lucky to be linked to.

She broke up with her long-term partner. Picture: Instagram

Carrie Bickmore, in holiday mode Picture: Instagram

After a decade run on the program, she infamously left 10s The Project and decided instead to concentrate on her successful radio show alongside comedian Tommy Little.

No one was remarking that she was on her way out of show business and about to be replaced by a younger model.

Nope! She’s being viewed as a hot commodity, and people are eager to see her next move and fingers are crossed that she’ll return to television one day.

As for her bikini body, I mean, any conversation about a woman’s body is complex and, to a certain extent, problematic. But once again, people are commenting fire emojis under her bathing suit photos. It is clear she’s seen as gorgeous, sexy, desirable, certainly not on the shelf and expired.

I don’t think the continual success of Carrie erases all the ageism that women still experience, not even close. But I think it does show things are changing, the culture is changing, and Carrie is thriving.

The idea that women have an expiry date has always been a lie, and it looks like society is finally on its way to not believing it.