Use your widget sidebars in the admin Design tab to change this little blurb here. Add the text widget to the Blurb Sidebar!

Sex after 50 | Life and style | The Guardian

Posted: August 10th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Briefs | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on Sex after 50 | Life and style | The Guardian

According to some reports, STI rates among elders has doubled. Sadly, many use this as an excuse to express sex-negative prejudice against older people. As Pamela Stephenson Connolly writes, "the prominence and style of these articles underscores the sexual ageism that pervades our society." Of course, a number of those articles are in The Guardian, a point notably missing from Connolly's article (in The Guardian).

Nevertheless, she makes some good points: "We should be encouraging elders, including those facing challenges of illness and disability, to voice their sexual concerns without fearing our prejudice and guilt. … Perhaps the best form of safe sex for older people is exactly what one would advocate for younger people if one could get away with it; out with abstinence preaching and in with promoting fabulous eroticism in all its many, non-penetrative forms."

Must we really "get away with it," or are concerns about young people simply the other side of the same ageist coin?

Read brief source…

Folks 45 and older are loving sexual liberation, AARP survey finds

Posted: May 11th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Briefs | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on Folks 45 and older are loving sexual liberation, AARP survey finds

An AARP study conducted in August 2009 "is more empirical evidence that the older folks are fully invested in doing the wild thing whenever possible," the Washington Post reports. The study surveys Americans who are at least 45 years old regarding sexual behaviors, attitudes and fantasies and found that "The favorite fantasy of [the] men [surveyed] is sex with a stranger. Same with women."

The national study of American elders found "The percentage who think you must be married to have sex has dropped by almost half in 10 years, from 41 percent to 22 percent," and "that 48 percent of those who are dating have sex at least once a week, while 36 percent of the married ones do." In other words, researchers found "an assertion of sexual freedom among widows, widowers, divorced people or folks who never married."

Curiously, despite increased freedom to have it, less partnered sex is being had. "[F]requency of self-stimulation, sexual thoughts, and fantasies have not changed," however.

Read brief source…