Tensions and contradictions: Women’s stories of ageing and sexuality in the context of the past

Abstract

This article explores older Australian women’s sexual subjectivities in the context of cultural expectations of generational change in later-life sexual practices. Drawing upon interview and journal data from 28 women aged 55 to 81, it considers diverse recollections of their sexual pasts and their current subjective expectations of sex and intimacy in old age. These data suggest that these ‘post liberation’ women’s understandings of their sexual lives were shaped by a rejection of asexual old age, while simultaneously relying upon traditional gendered and heteronormative notions of sexual practice and desire. Applying a critical gerontological lens to these data, this article demonstrates the presence of obstacles in the sometimes over-simplified and linear interpretations of generational change.