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Canadian
Press Older women need to talk about their sexuality with each other if they want to shatter existing stereotypes and overcome the lack of information about seniors and sex. That was one message aimed at seniors and health-care professionals at a conference dealing with women's sexuality, as organizers presented several speakers Saturday concerned with changing how women in the second half of their lives approach sex. According to one specialist, the central myth surrounding older women is that they have no sexual desire, that they are "washed-up after they have kids." "The range of sexual desire after 50 is in fact really broad," said Deborah Nedelman, a clinical psychologist based in Everett, Wash., and co-founder of Women Beyond 50, a company providing older women with information about sex. Nedelman said older women are often confused about how to interpret their sexual desire. As many as 14 per cent of women over 50 experience an increase in their sex drive, she said, but many figure there must be something wrong with them. "Older women need to reclaim their own sexuality," she said. "For many older women, their sexual desire is mysterious" agreed Leah Kliger, a health-care educator and Nedelman's business partner. "They are hungry for concrete, real information," Nedelman added. But that information has been hard to come by for many women, said Meika Loe, an assistant professor in sociology at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. There have been few studies devoted to exploring the sex drives of elderly women and Loe said some doctors are uncomfortable when older older patients ask for information about sex. Nevertheless, several researchers have noted a spike in interest in such topics during recent years. Much of this interest has been attributed to the remarkable success of the male impotence drug Viagra. Some have even credited the drug for a sexual revolution in the older population. But Loe, whose book The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America, is one of the first studies to be critical of the drug, said if Viagra has ushered in an era of sexually liberated seniors it's success has been a double-edged sword. "The sexual senior is not new. What is new is the pressure that comes
with the "Viagra has increased the anxiety about living up to sexual standards. "Being a true human being now means being a sexual being for life." For Nedelman and Kliger the issue is not so much about a sexual revolution, but more about redefining what it means to be sexy. Many of their subjects claimed they didn't have the right to be sexy because they felt their body image didn't align with mainstream notions of sexy. What older women need to realise, said Kliger, is that "you can feel sexually vibrant without having sex." She cited the example of one woman they interviewed who began masturbating at the age of 80 and "discovered a whole new world. "Women need to take control of their own sexual experience." The conference, organized by the New View Campaign, brought together experts from across the U.S. and Canada.
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