Sexuality and older women: Desirability and desire

Abstract

Little research has been conducted on older women's sexual desire and activity internationally except to document sexual declines, diseases or dysfunctions, and victimization. As we move away from ageist, heteronormative, and androcentric perspectives regarding the sexuality of older women, we realize that the degree to which the sexuality of older women is expressed depends on sociocultural contexts (Lusti–Narasimhan and Beard, B World Health Organ 91:707–709, 2013). Cultural expectations for older women may include declining levels of attractiveness and sexual activity. Yet, in Western cultures, decreases in sexual activity are increasingly labeled as dysfunction, and both media and medicine argue for a wrinkle–free and toned appear. There is evidence that such contemporary beauty ideals and cultural stereotypes about old women combine to undermine older women's sense of their own desirability (Calasanti and Slevin, Gender, Social Inequalities and Aging, 2001; Lemish and Muhlbauer, Women Ther 35:165–180, 2012; Clarke, J Women Aging 12(3–4): 77–97, 2011); however, we also review research indicating that women's experience of their own sexual desire and desirability are more complex, contextual, and even contradictory (Clarke, J Women Aging 12(3–4): 77–97, 2011; Slevin, Age Matters: Realigning Feminist Thinking, pp. 247–268, 2006). In this review of the sexual desirability and desire of older women, we acknowledge the varied and complex perspectives that older women have in relation to their bodies, their appearance, and their sexual selves. We attempt to address the impact of contextual factors on women's experience of themselves as sexual beings, including the larger sociohistorical context of their lives, and the particular context in which they experience sexual desire, such as the availability of a partner and the quality of their relationships. In addition to examining the impact of ageist approaches to older women, we examine the degree to which older women themselves may voice ageist attitudes. We question how older women might exercise agency to resist inconsistent and negative cultural constructions of aging to arrive at an authentic expression of their own desirability and desire.