1 Introduction to the volume: themes, issues and chapter synopses
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Paul Simpson
Abstract
This introductory chapter outlines the need for a critically focused edited collection as a recuperative project that sheds light on a highly under-researched set of issues: later life sexualities in parts of the globe obscured by the global North’s/West’s obsession with itself and misunderstanding of (intersecting) ageing, genders and sexualities in the global South and East. It highlights how the chapters draw on a plethora of theorising (decolonial, poststructuralist/queer, phenomenological, feminist and Marxist-feminist). The chapter points out that the book is organised around themes of in/visibility; older women questioning later life though inter- and intragenerational accounts; and sexual agency through fantasy, erotic storytelling and pleasure. It also questions the rigidity of Western binaries (of progressive/regressive sexual mores) and provides a synopsis of each contribution and what each adds to knowledge.
Abstract
This introductory chapter outlines the need for a critically focused edited collection as a recuperative project that sheds light on a highly under-researched set of issues: later life sexualities in parts of the globe obscured by the global North’s/West’s obsession with itself and misunderstanding of (intersecting) ageing, genders and sexualities in the global South and East. It highlights how the chapters draw on a plethora of theorising (decolonial, poststructuralist/queer, phenomenological, feminist and Marxist-feminist). The chapter points out that the book is organised around themes of in/visibility; older women questioning later life though inter- and intragenerational accounts; and sexual agency through fantasy, erotic storytelling and pleasure. It also questions the rigidity of Western binaries (of progressive/regressive sexual mores) and provides a synopsis of each contribution and what each adds to knowledge.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Thanks and acknowledgements v
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xv
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to the volume: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
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In/visibility and ambivalence
- Under the orhni: intimacy and near-invisibility among older Indo-Trinidadian queer menKrystal Nandini Ghisyawan and Marcus Kissoon 21
- Older kinnars, ageism and sexuality during the COVID-19 pandemic 38
- Doing complex intimacy in the later life of Chinese gay men in Hong Kong 54
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Women questioning age/ing intergenerationally and intragenerationally
- Deep within the eye of the beheld: exploring hidden accounts of intimacy in the lives of older Indian women in urban Malaysia 75
- From age of despair to window of opportunity? Reframing women’s sexuality in later life in the Middle East and North Africa 93
- Lost voices of Partition: carrying gender, nation and femininity across the life course 115
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Agency through fantasy, erotic tales and pleasure
- Sexual fantasies and older, Indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural constraints and possibilities 139
- Indigenous elders as sexual agents through storytelling as a queer and decolonial practice in ‘Canada’ 157
- Sex, intimacy and older life in Muslim contexts 174
- Reflections: themes and issues emerging from the volume 192
- Index 209
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Thanks and acknowledgements v
- Contents vii
- Notes on editors and contributors ix
- Series editors’ introduction xv
- Foreword xxv
- Introduction to the volume: themes, issues and chapter synopses 1
-
In/visibility and ambivalence
- Under the orhni: intimacy and near-invisibility among older Indo-Trinidadian queer menKrystal Nandini Ghisyawan and Marcus Kissoon 21
- Older kinnars, ageism and sexuality during the COVID-19 pandemic 38
- Doing complex intimacy in the later life of Chinese gay men in Hong Kong 54
-
Women questioning age/ing intergenerationally and intragenerationally
- Deep within the eye of the beheld: exploring hidden accounts of intimacy in the lives of older Indian women in urban Malaysia 75
- From age of despair to window of opportunity? Reframing women’s sexuality in later life in the Middle East and North Africa 93
- Lost voices of Partition: carrying gender, nation and femininity across the life course 115
-
Agency through fantasy, erotic tales and pleasure
- Sexual fantasies and older, Indigenous Purépecha women: sociocultural constraints and possibilities 139
- Indigenous elders as sexual agents through storytelling as a queer and decolonial practice in ‘Canada’ 157
- Sex, intimacy and older life in Muslim contexts 174
- Reflections: themes and issues emerging from the volume 192
- Index 209
