Policy Press
1 Introduction to volume two: themes, issues and chapter synopses
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Paul Simpson
Abstract
Older people’s sexual and intimate lives represent an emerging field of study that fuels demands for change across public, private and voluntary services and holds some promise for representing age as positive change (see the volume edited by Barrett and Hinchliff, 2017). Yet, there remain significant constraints on older individuals’ sexual expression and limitations in knowledge on sexuality in later life (Reynolds et al, 2021). Constraint on sexual and intimate self-expression and practice, operating in diverse, intersectional modes, was a key motif that emerged in the first volume addressing diversity in this book series on Sex and Intimacy in Later Life. Older people (defined as aged 50 and over in the series introduction in this volume) remain the subject of stereotyping as non-sexual or ‘post-sexual’ (Simpson et al, 2018). Such a concept broadly refers to the process of desexualisation of older people that appears endemic in late modern societies and marks limits to who counts, age-wise, as a legitimate sexual being (Gatling et al, 2017).
Indeed, representations of age stress unsexy, sagging flesh, tarnished bodies, sexual dysfunction and absence of eroticism (Moore and Reynolds, 2016). More specifically, Gilleard and Higgs (2011) talk of how the leaky, less continent bodies of the oldest old are contrasted with the vital performances of younger adults, and Moore and Reynolds (2016) draw attention to a negative aesthetic that equates older people with ugliness and dearth, if not death, of desire. In light of such endemic pathologies and prejudices, it is tempting to believe that older people are generally not only thought of as no longer interested in engaging in sexual activity and pleasure but also are probably not even expected to think of it (Simpson et al, 2018; Bauer et al, 2016).
Abstract
Older people’s sexual and intimate lives represent an emerging field of study that fuels demands for change across public, private and voluntary services and holds some promise for representing age as positive change (see the volume edited by Barrett and Hinchliff, 2017). Yet, there remain significant constraints on older individuals’ sexual expression and limitations in knowledge on sexuality in later life (Reynolds et al, 2021). Constraint on sexual and intimate self-expression and practice, operating in diverse, intersectional modes, was a key motif that emerged in the first volume addressing diversity in this book series on Sex and Intimacy in Later Life. Older people (defined as aged 50 and over in the series introduction in this volume) remain the subject of stereotyping as non-sexual or ‘post-sexual’ (Simpson et al, 2018). Such a concept broadly refers to the process of desexualisation of older people that appears endemic in late modern societies and marks limits to who counts, age-wise, as a legitimate sexual being (Gatling et al, 2017).
Indeed, representations of age stress unsexy, sagging flesh, tarnished bodies, sexual dysfunction and absence of eroticism (Moore and Reynolds, 2016). More specifically, Gilleard and Higgs (2011) talk of how the leaky, less continent bodies of the oldest old are contrasted with the vital performances of younger adults, and Moore and Reynolds (2016) draw attention to a negative aesthetic that equates older people with ugliness and dearth, if not death, of desire. In light of such endemic pathologies and prejudices, it is tempting to believe that older people are generally not only thought of as no longer interested in engaging in sexual activity and pleasure but also are probably not even expected to think of it (Simpson et al, 2018; Bauer et al, 2016).
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xiii
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to volume two: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
- Consent and sexual literacy for older people 17
- ‘At YOUR age???!!!’: the constraints of ageist erotophobia on older people’s sexual and intimate relationships 35
- The aesthetic(s) of eroticism in later life 53
- Menopause and the ‘menoboom’: how older women are desexualised by culture 77
- Ageing, physical disability and desexualisation 95
- Ageing, intellectual disability and desexualisation 117
- Dancing in- or out-of-step? Sexual and intimate relationships among heterosexual couples living with Alzheimer’s disease 135
- Older people living in long-term care: no place for old sex? 153
- Ageing and the LGBTI+ community: a case study of Australian care policy 171
- The role of professionals and service providers in supporting sexuality and intimacy in later life: theoretical and practice perspectives 191
- Final reflections: themes and issues arising from the volume on desexualisation in later life 211
- Index 221
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xiii
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to volume two: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
- Consent and sexual literacy for older people 17
- ‘At YOUR age???!!!’: the constraints of ageist erotophobia on older people’s sexual and intimate relationships 35
- The aesthetic(s) of eroticism in later life 53
- Menopause and the ‘menoboom’: how older women are desexualised by culture 77
- Ageing, physical disability and desexualisation 95
- Ageing, intellectual disability and desexualisation 117
- Dancing in- or out-of-step? Sexual and intimate relationships among heterosexual couples living with Alzheimer’s disease 135
- Older people living in long-term care: no place for old sex? 153
- Ageing and the LGBTI+ community: a case study of Australian care policy 171
- The role of professionals and service providers in supporting sexuality and intimacy in later life: theoretical and practice perspectives 191
- Final reflections: themes and issues arising from the volume on desexualisation in later life 211
- Index 221
