Sometimes there are truly venerable wise matriarchs.

But that requires going through a few things and coming out the other side in one piece.

Today I could point to women like Kellyanne C and Sarah H S as types like that. They aren't that old but they are going to make valuable grandmothers.

The "wise, virtuous, older woman" the historic school marm, was an early target and an early casualty of the culture wars.

Now you have older women who want to prove they are exactly NOT that. They want to be hip. Not square. That is one way to be completely useless. But they aren't smart enough to know that.

The church ladies of yesteryear would have known better.

It is a casualty of the loss of traditional Western religion.