{"title":"Dancing in-or out-of-step? Sexual and intimate relationships among heterosexual couples living with Alzheimer’s disease","authors":"L. Sandberg","doi":"10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses experiences of sexual and intimate relationships among people with Alzheimer’s disease themselves and their partners. The aim was to go beyond narrow conceptualisations of sexuality among people with dementia as either non-existing or problematic, which are often reflected in both the scientific literature and practice, and instead explore the complex meaning-making on sexuality among couples. The chapter draws on a qualitative interview study with persons who were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and partners of a person with Alzheimer’s disease, aged 55-87. The chapter focuses on the themes of responsibility, reciprocity and recognition and argues that the sexual and intimate relationship must be understood in relation to the influence of dementia on the relationship overall. Gender was of particular significance to experiences of sexuality and intimacy among participants. Gendered inequalities in the past and present had a significant impact on how women experienced the sexual and intimate relationship and the emergence of their sexual subjectivities.","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125826487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Consent and sexual literacy for older people","authors":"P. Reynolds","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1rnpj73.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1rnpj73.7","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the concept of sexual consent, and its apparent neglect in the literature on the intersectional on ageing and sexual and intimate lives. It explores the way in which valid consent (informed, free from coercion, capacity) is influenced by the way in which older people are desexualised in contemporary society. Consent is a complex concept that raises issues of how informed a person is and what constitutes freedom from coercion or capacity. With older people, the generational cultural context adds to those complexities and reinforces their desexualisation. It then explores how promoting older people’s sexual literacy as a means of enabling them to have an ethical sexual life.","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117179033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The role of professionals and service providers in supporting sexuality and intimacy in later life:","authors":"Trish Hafford-Letchfield","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1rnpj73.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1rnpj73.16","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133499854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The role of professionals and service providers in supporting sexuality and intimacy in later life: theoretical and practice perspectives","authors":"Trish Hafford-Letchfield","doi":"10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"The transformation of intimacy and sexuality within care institutions is challenging established views about ageing. This chapter draws on scholarship from both sexuality and workforce development on how health and social care providers have yet to respond to the growing empirical evidence on what contributes a meaningful life for older care recipients in relation to their sexuality, sexual identities and meeting sexual needs. It is argued that there is an urgent need to transcend established views about the role of all professionals involved in the provision of care to people in later life and to recognise new opportunities for responding to the complexity of sexuality in such contexts. This involves developing and promoting professional practice on theoretical and empirical standpoints that are inclusive of older people’s own voices. This chapter provides example of how we might recognise the complexity of older peoples’ relationship situations. These involve making spaces within assessment and the provision of care to enable information and support to be available and to recognise different relationships and creating conditions for them to flourish. It calls for engaging with sexuality as a topic within professional education, care practices and evaluation of services and working towards a culturally-competent, enquiring and authentic approach to workforce development.","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"4 7","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114007523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Older people living in long-term care: no place for old sex?","authors":"Feliciano Villar, Josep Fabà","doi":"10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter addresses barriers that older people living in long-term care facilities (L-TCF) have to face to express openly their sexual needs and maintain their rights to a sexual/erotic life. It examines research regarding three kinds of barrier: social attitudes toward sexuality in older age; organizational culture and models of care prevalent in L-TCF; and staff attitudes influencing practices and relations with older people living in L-TCF. The chapter also draws attention to how certain social groups, such as people living with a dementia, and those identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans face particular problems in relation to the expression of sexual needs. The chapter concludes by considering interventions aimed at improving such challenging situations, among them reinforcing staff development and training on sexual issues, developing formal and clear institutional guidelines on sexuality and the need to abandon a task-oriented model of care in favour of person-centred care models.","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116051107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ageing and the LGBTI+ community: a case study of Australian care policy","authors":"J. Youell","doi":"10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"Sex, intimacy and relational needs are fundamental to wellbeing across the lifespan. For those who are older and identify as LGBTI+ there is a greater sense of invisibility which undermines and inhibits supportive relational care. This chapter argues for LGBTI+ inclusive older people’s care services with a view to recognising and supporting the relational needs of the LGBTI+ community. This chapter considers the broad themes which emerged from discussion with key stakeholders in Australia when undertaking a Churchill Fellowship. The themes identify core components which were integral when creating LGBTI+ inclusive care services in Australia. The themes National Drive, Organisational Desire and Community Benefits and Examples of Good Practice offer evidence of the legislative changes, how organisations implemented change and examples of good practice from an Australian perspective.","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123310348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Menopause and the ‘menoboom’:","authors":"C. Anderson","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1rnpj73.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1rnpj73.10","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132150034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘At YOUR age???!!!’: the constraints of ageist erotophobia on older people’s sexual and intimate relationships","authors":"P. Simpson","doi":"10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Older people’s attempts to express sexuality/intimacy are commonly met with ridicule, disbelief and infantilization. Such a process has been identified as ‘ageist erotophobia’ (Simpson et al 2018). This chapter demonstrates how ageist erotophobia is implicated in relational constraints on the expression of sexuality and intimacy in later life at three ‘levels’ that contribute to desexualisation. These concern the macro-level social relations of ageism which also influence thought/practice at the meso-level of care homes and everyday micro-level interpersonal relations. The concluding section briefly draws attention to how older people can avoid or challenge ageist erotophobia.","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121169677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Menopause and the ‘menoboom’1: how older women are desexualised by culture","authors":"Clare Anderson","doi":"10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447355465.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"The cultural and subjective gazes continue to characterise the process of female ageing as one of loss, in which the female body is both desexualised and degendered. This chapter explores the relationship between these two deeply problematic concepts, drawing on a public menopause discourse from the lifestyle media and the growing sub-genre of semi-autobiographical mid-life narratives. It compares these public voices with the private voices of a group of women’s individual accounts of the menopause, taken from a series of qualitative interviews. The draws on age theorist Margaret Gullette’s contention that the menopause is culturally constructed, that the profusion of menopause discourses (‘the menoboom’ 1997: 98) artificially conflates menopause with inevitable decline, creating a single narrative of loss: of physical strength, of emotional stability, and of sexual attractiveness. The chapter concludes that the notion of an older female body which can still be sexual remains too challenging for the narrow ideological, visual and linguistic repertoire of a prevailing culture.","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"60 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122569683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ageing, physical disability and desexualisation","authors":"Susan Gillen, P. Reynolds","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1rnpj73.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1rnpj73.11","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the impact of the intersections of ageing and physical disability on older people’s sexual and intimate lives. It reviews the shift in conceptual framings of physical disability from notions of impairment through to Crip/queer critiques. This shift reflects a movement from a focus on the particularity of an individual’s ‘normal’ capabilities to a critical deconstruction of the power of ‘norms’ and the pathologies and prejudices that constitute disability. It then surveys some of the emergent studies and scholarship that both describe discourses of desexualisation and set the beginnings of the agenda for their reversal","PeriodicalId":273194,"journal":{"name":"Desexualisation in Later Life","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128298814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}