Abstract
This well-researched volume grounded in European critical theory provides essential knowledge for social work practice, policy, research, and education pertaining to sexuality and aging. Chapters address sexual expression and pleasure among Black minority elderly (BME); sexual desires and intimacy needs in older persons toward the end of life; perspectives of older women regarding heterosexual sex, love, and intimacy in later life; sex and aging in older heterosexual men; sex and older gay men; older lesbians, sex, and violence; Michel Foucault's “heterotopia” and bisexuality in later life; gender transition at 50 plus; desexualization and aging intimacies; and older people, sex, and social class. Bonhomme (p. 176), writing about gender transition over 50, reminds readers about the “pursuit for authenticity through the life course and that it is never too late to ‘be oneself.’”
The editors affirm that the volume documents “the extent to which negative ageing and sexual discourses are compounded when brought together in the older sexual subject” (p. 10). Negativity is exacerbated due to prejudices against same-sex relationships, trans-, bisexuality “or anything that departs from heteronormative/homonormative and cisgender paradigms” (p. 10). Socialization into societal and subcultural attitudes about sexuality and later adulthood is consistently addressed as influencing the thinking and behavior of older adults and others. Harley addresses BME females in relation to historical trauma experienced by previous generations and the legacy of colonialism. Citing Duvall et al., 2013, Harley (p. 16) writes that “stereotype threat (when someone is worried or anxious about the possibility of being judged according to stereotypes about their group) has been found to influence Black women's internalisation of sexual stereotypes and is associated with more risky sexual attitudes and behavior.” According to Harley (p. 16), “BME women over age 50 tend to feel uncomfortable discussing their sexual practices and … doctors should proactively ask about sexual practices” (Thames et al., 2018). This discomfort on the part of BME women over age 50 in talking about their sexual activity has important implications for social work practice. Harley continues that BME older women are often “forgotten or not acknowledged as survivors of sexual violence due to intersectionality which may become more apparent by a race, age, and gender gap at the doctor's office, thus creating another level of health care disparity” (Prather et al., 2018), in Hafford-Letchfield et al. (2021, p. 17). Harley (2021, p. 23), discussing BME women, also notes that religion is “directly and indirectly active in the teaching of sex-related behaviours for all women.”
The influence of hegemonic structures on agency and power is identified in several chapters as relevant to sexual and gender identities. Hafford-Letchfield (p. 58) reminds readers that in the history of feminist theorizing on sexual identities, “the gay/straight divide occupies a pole position and tends to obscure any intersectionalities that relate to sexual identities such as race, class, and age.” Hafford-Letchfield (p. 59) writes that scholars “articulate how an entire system of social organisation can be embodied in private moments of physical and emotional longing which promote relational heterosexual practice as hegemonic in Western society.” She writes that the idealized features of heterosexuality and its organizing principles, including monogamy, marriage, and childbearing, and the absence of powerful positive counternarratives “constrains the possibilities of identity for all women.”
Hafford-Letchfield (p. 60) asserts that feminism has challenged the idea of “compulsory heterosexuality” and feminist thought has led to a critical exploration of the aging experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women. She advocates for addressing women's changing circumstances at the individual and societal level by governments, policymakers, and service providers, with particular emphasis on women's sexual health needs. Social workers have the knowledge and skills to address these needs with and on behalf of older women.
Research in this volume challenges stereotypes by addressing the experiences of diverse older adults from a life course perspective. In gerontological practice, it is important to learn about each client's experiences throughout life. Social workers need to understand older adults’ life experiences and marginalization from the perspective of changing historical times during clients’ lives. Older people's voices must be at the center of analysis to appropriately provide services, as articulated by Hafford-Letchfield (p. 60).
For example, a life course perspective is valuable for understanding the experiences of older bisexual women and men. In his chapter informed by Foucault's (1967) concept of heterotopia and bisexuality in later life, Wells describes older adults who have experienced bisexuality throughout their lives. Wells (p. 145) writes that “It has…been argued that the dominant ideologies of mononormativity sustain bi-erasure or bi-invisibility, two descriptors that are used interchangeably within queer theory to denote the denial of bisexual representations in both popular and medical discourses” (Bailey et al., 2012). Awareness of bisexuality extending into later adulthood in the lives of bisexual residents in institutional settings is important for social workers in care settings where older bisexuals may feel compelled to live invisibly and deny fulfillment of their sexual needs when they “pick a side and align with a falsely mononormative identity category” (Bowes-Catton, 2007).
Placing older lesbians at the center of analysis, Todd's (p. 121) research about older lesbians, sex, and violence requires social workers to understand that despite bearing witness to profound social changes over time, older lesbians find that “ageism, heterosexism, and sexism impact on their lives in various and complex ways, frequently rendering older lesbians invisible, culturally and socially” (Traies, 2012). In addition, as older members of the LGBTQ+ “‘community’ … , many older lesbians feel marginalised by the assumptions and privileging of heterosexual norms and values” (p. 121). This relegation of older lesbians to the periphery has profound implications for older lesbians experiencing sexual abuse within their relationships and requires social workers’ understanding that some older lesbians who are abused by partners are silenced by marginality and the abuser, as documented in Wells's research.
