Front Cover
Desexualisation in Later Life: The Limits of Sex and Intimacy
Copyright information
Series
Dedication
Table of contents
Notes on editors and contributors
Series editors’ introduction
List of contributors
Foreword
1 Introduction to volume two: themes, issues and chapter synopses
Desexualisation
Chapter synopses: biological, legal, relational, cultural, structural and policy/practice constraints on older people as sexual agents
Consent and constraint
Relational constraints
Aesthetic(s) of eroticism in later life
Discourses of ageing femininity and the menopausal body
Constraints on older disabled people
Constraint and older people with an intellectual disability
Constraints: the need to go beyond dementia and sexuality as a problem
Constraints on older people living in long-term care facilities
Ageing LGBT individuals and sex
Sex and intimacy in later life: the role of professionals in overcoming desexualisation
Conclusion
References
2 Consent and sexual literacy for older people
Older people’s sexual activity, desires and impediments
Understanding sexual consent
Time, cultural change and consent issues for older people
Sexual literacy and older people’s sexual agency and lives
References
3 ‘At YOUR age???!!!’: the constraints of ageist erotophobia on older people’s sexual and intimate relationships
Discursive relations and ageist erotophobia
Erotophobia and relations within care home contexts
Ageist erotophobia and interpersonal relations: a rare footnote
Conclusion
Note
References
4 The aesthetic(s) of eroticism in later life
Introduction
A constructionist approach to eroticism in later life
Cultural analysis of age-related eroticism
Current scenarios
Emerging narratives
Analysis of our psychological study on ageing sexuality
Conclusion
Note
References
5 Menopause and the ‘menoboom’1: how older women are desexualised by culture
Introduction
Cultural context
A culture of binaries
The mass-mediated female body
Ageing, femininity and sexuality
Public voices: menopause, the ‘menoboom’ and narratives of midlife
Connecting public voices and individual experience
Private voices: lived experience of menopause
Pinnacle and decline
Conclusion
Notes
References
6 Ageing, physical disability and desexualisation
From impairment to disability to crip: theorising disability
Dimensions of the intersection: older people, physical disability and intimate lives
Age, disability and desexualisation: critical responses
References
7 Ageing, intellectual disability and desexualisation
Neurodiversity: problems of definition and boundary-marking
Consent and capacity
Intellectual disability, ageing and sex and intimacy: the terrain
Conclusion
References
8 Dancing in- or out-of-step? Sexual and intimate relationships among heterosexual couples living with Alzheimer’s disease
Introduction
What is ‘dementia’?
“The sex therapist has arrived”: the study and its participants
Gendered responsibility and the impact on sexual selves
“Dancing out of step”: loss of reciprocity
“She doesn’t understand me”: disrupted and maintained recognition
Conclusion
References
9 Older people living in long-term care: no place for old sex?
Barriers to sexual expression in L-TCFs
Social attitudes toward sexuality in older age
Conceptions of care and organisational culture
Professional attitudes
Sexuality in residential aged care facilities among older people living with dementia
LGBT older adults and residential aged care facilities
Conclusion
References
10 Ageing and the LGBTI+ community: a case study of Australian care policy
Introduction
Context
LGBTI+ population: UK and Australia
Inclusive care for older people and the LGBTI+ community
Meeting key stakeholders
An Australian case study
National drive: the Australian picture
Organisational desire for LGBTI+ inclusive aged care
Community benefits and examples of good practice
Conclusion
References
11 The role of professionals and service providers in supporting sexuality and intimacy in later life: theoretical and practice perspectives
Introduction
Sexuality as taboo in care: theoretical perspectives
Theoretical perspectives
Conceptualising desexualisation in care settings
Transition and ‘vulnerabilities’
Conclusion
References
12 Final reflections: themes and issues arising from the volume on desexualisation in later life
Overarching themes relating to the desexualisation of older people
Being old = multiple changes = loss
Diversity in desexualisation
Policy and practice issues
The state of research on desexualisation and possible future directions
References
Index
Back Cover