In this age, there are a higher percentage of the population who call themselves (or someone else calls them) seniors. In this age group, dating can open a new and frightening endeavor. Dating in the 50’s and 60’s was much different than dating today. In those days, you found a person at a party, church, class, or group who looked appealing.
30 years ago AIDS was the "Gay Disease"... today, it affects every sex, every culture, and every age 30 years ago a doctor was confounded by symptoms he had never seen before. Cutting to the chase, he is credited with labeling the first AIDS case in America for what it was: a horrifyingly carnivorous disease that took thousands of lives, initially mostly homosexuals, and started a revolution. Not only did AIDS research begin in earnest and result in life-saving gains, but same-sex partners pioneered health care breakthroughs that benefited a nation.
For the majority of women, menopause causes no disruption in sexual relations. The hormonal and other changes taking place in her body need not affect a womans desire for sex or her capacity to experience pleasure.
Yesterday's New York Times Modern Love column was by Alix Kates Shulman, author of To Love What Is: A Marriage Transformed. Shulman, an elderly woman, is the primary caretaker of her husband, who lost his short-term memory and his ability to function alone, when he was injured in a fall four years ago. Shulman wrote about her husband's belief that he was having an affair with his companion, Jenn. Shulman hired Jenn to care of her husband during the day—to take him on walks, to the museum, to be by his side always so he can function in the world.
A woman discovers her grandfather's secret love of pornography. "I didn't know if I should laugh or vomit as I realized grandpa, the man who let me stay up late, eating "ippy" (our nickname for ice cream) out of the container, was into hardcore pornography. I couldn't help but feel an immense sadness as I grasped just what a lonely life my grandfather has been leading."
You may have thought it was a little weird for the Baby Boomer generation to be into internet dating, but it looks like their parents are getting into it too. That's not all, cohabitation is on the rise for the World War II victors.
Keep it in your pants, gramps. From CBS (CBS/AP) An unprecedented study of sex and seniors finds that many older people are surprisingly frisky — willing to do, and talk about, intimate acts that would make their grandchildren blush. That may be too much information for some folks. But it comes from the most comprehensive sex survey ever done among 57- to 85-year-olds in the United States. Sex and interest in it do fall off when people are in their 70s, but more than a quarter of those up to age 85 reported having sex in the previous year. And the drop-off has a lot to do with health or lack of a partner, especially for women, the survey found. Tango’s Take
