Ageism and Sexuality - Research Paper Example

 There has been a predominant increase in the research of sexuality of the older persons. The changing pattern of sexuality in accordance with age is a growing field of discussion in the recent times. This increase in the research may be due to the enhanced debates relating to the sustainability of sexual lives in the old age which has been a uprising discussion in the industry of pharmaceutics related with the marketing of drugs for the sexual dysfunction (Moore, 2010, p. 149). The trajectory of medical sciences has focused on the extent to which the older men and women maintain an active sexual life. Recent studies have also encircled around the exploration of the arena regarding the subjective sexual wellbeing, feelings of sexual satisfaction along with the emotional dimensions of the sexual relationships operating in the late life (Moore, 2010, p. 149). In this paper different theories related with this topic will be discussed in detail in order to grasp the understanding the correlation of sexuality with the increase in age. Age as a crucial factor in sexuality Age plays a significant role in the social organization apart from the race, class and gender has been relatively neglected by the social scientists. The earlier social studies imparted focus on the constraints occurring with ageing which implemented the age-stratification models which signified that the persons of a given age are differently value judged in the hierarchical system of social class (Chesnais, 2000, p.2). A major concern is that studies point on the transformation of the age issues with that of the class issue. This notion fails to clarify the way in which the age-differentiated patterns can be imagined or be exposed to challenge. The issues related with age are always necessarily attached with the material conditions. There may generate a number of identities in the lives of the people rejecting the conceptualizations as of age as constant or fixed (Gonzalez, 2007, p.32). Sexuality is a significant component steering the quality of life throughout the course of life. Biological, psychological, and social factors are some independent variables on which the complete expression of sexuality is largely dependent. The primal driver of sexuality in both the sexes is Testosterone. The consequences of aging on sexuality may result in the development of major anxiety. But ample infusion of education will lead to a sustained sexual life throughout the life of a person. In the modern era, the exposure to the exposure of the discussion of sexuality has rapidly increased in the last four decades and as a consequences several older people has came out in the forefront from a generation where the topic of sexuality was treated as a social barricade. The spectrum of sexuality can be represented in the following classification as follows: Fig. 1. The spectrum of sexuality (Morley, n.d., p.2) Age-grading: An Anthropological Approach to Bodies and Age For the proper understandings of the sexuality, writers are in the preferences of drawing attention to the bodily boundaries as because the body expresses the forms and borders of a socially constructed being in one of the most meaningful referents. Bodies can generally appear in the state of health, ill, innocence, sexy, old, white, and black and so on. The bodily forms bear meaning in association with several patterns of social organizations and significances among which a range of patterns is usually configured by age. The different forms with which age has been studied dynamically with cultures and in everyday life there is a validation of age which encourages several inequalities in relation to the ageing body with strong implications on the understanding of the social lives of the people. This notion is generally inflicted on the way of establishment of the people’s relationship with their own bodies and with the other human beings. Age acts as a stratifying parameter in terms of the social inequality but different aspects such as ethnicity, education, employment, gender and class results in the complications the picture as the meanings of age created will vary. The relationships between adult men and women are basically conceptualized as unequal and the principle may be modified by age or social rank in some definite contexts. In the essence of inequality, the definitions of age are generally attached with different forms of social organizations. In this sense, all the societies rationalize the life time into social units attached with several levels of status partly determined by age which signifies to the life cycle. This process is generally motioned as the age-grading policies. The very idea of the age grading generates from the anthropological studies which encountered that in simple societies life generally conforms to the succession of the ascriptive roles and statuses. This resides on the very presence of the age-related norms and status who are systematically attached with the bodily ageing. The age grading system operates in the form of regulating relationships where the age systems help in the regulation of the individual’s idiosyncrasies in a platform where the age can be measured by the biological maturation. The notion of the age grading guides the ways in which the significance of age helps in the influence of the expectations of the people and creates in the forms of understanding the status which has implications on the management of social time and, as part of their sexuality. It is a fact that although age grading policies helps in the shaping of the human relationships, the modern complex societies do not possess a single age grading system. The systems results in the establishment of the age distinction and along with them the norms and expectations regarding the age appropriate behavior operating on basis of informal consensus but others are predetermined by several legal tools (Gonzalez, 2007, pp. 32-34). Phenomenology and sexuality among the older people and myths attached The domain of Phenomenology offers a platform for the study of experience from the viewpoint of the individuals. It is concerned with the ushering and the understanding of the lived experience of the individuals. The theories of embodiment have been framed with the distinguishing the physiological and biological causalities that helps in the figuring out of the bodily existence and also the underlying meaning attached with the lived experience. From the historical perspectives, the body may be understood as a historical idea where the body is assumed in being in the active process of certain historical and cultural possibilities (Embodiment, sexuality and ageing, n.d.). Several stereotypes go against the older people and come in the way of challenging the expression of sexuality of the older people. Studies and empirics reveal that the older people can remain sexually active but the society is still in the devaluation of the sexuality of the older people with humor and distaste. One of the major challenges which the society is facing is in the changing of the attitude of the people towards sex in the later life. As people age it is generally believed that the people become physically unattractive and lose their sexual needs. This misconception has forced the sexual older people into the development of the asexual beings losing the forms of the sexual behaviors. Very people deny the victimization of the older people for their explicit sexual behaviors and attaching them with the label of socially unacceptable. Such assumptions will generally end up in the denial of the right of the older people in expressing their real sexual feelings in a verbal way and behavioral way. As long as these deeply sowed myths are expelled, there will be continuation of the negligence of the sexuality of the older people to a greater extent. It has been found that instead of working towards the acceptance of the older people’s sexuality the society has been further disintegrated into the diversion of understanding the need of the older people (Low et al, 2005). Gender, sexuality and aging and gerontology Negligible attention is paid to the sexuality and aging in the mainstream literature of gerontology where the analysis is confined to only a small group. However the very notion of sexuality being the trajectory of the young people is an outdated idea. The notion of sexuality is constant in all the people’s lives and it does not get diminished at any particular age or time (Sex & Aging, n.d.). The argument of the feminist gerontology states that the sexual oppression and the privileges acts as an influence to the old people and thus play a significant role in the aging theory paradigm as well as in the research and in real life applicability. Research on old sexuality depends on the notion of identity. Some of the researchers maintains that the non heterosexual identity configure the aging in positive ways because of the presumed skills achieved in relation to the management of their non heterosexual identity. Issues of identity help in shaping of the aging of the non heterosexuals in predominant ways in which the heterosexuals do not have to keep in to consideration. The expected and the actual levels of discrimination drive the caregivers to the gay and the lesbian elders in the reluctance of delivering services especially in the delivering of the medical services even having the capacities they will shy away from providing for the fear of biased treatment. The variations in the publicly acknowledged partner status can bestow upon the present caregivers an additional limits on the general mental health as well as on the effectiveness of the advocacy of the care receivers. It is a fact the health care providers often overlook on the questions of sexuality and become often uncomfortable with the topics which adds levels of discomfort to the older gays and the lesbians feel in association with the long term care system which is intolerant of the gays and the lesbians. Various examples of survival strategies in such contexts attach a woman who changed her last name to her partner’s so that providers think that they are sisters (Bengtson0, 2009, pp. 480-481). Biological aspects and the results of awareness The awareness of the sexuality among the older people frantically increased with the release of the medication Viagra. The medication has changed the sexual behavior of a former candidate for United States President, Bob Dole. In 2006, the Film Away From Her brought into the forefront the issues of sexualities in couples dealing with dementia into sympathetic attention with star cast of Julie Christie with Alzheimer’s disease whose sexuality still remains vibrant. Although the majority part of the advertisements and media stories have been found in the spread of the awareness of the sexuality as one’s important part of life. Paradigm shifts have been encountered in between the Psychology interns and Medical Residents receiving training in clinic for the sexual dysfunction at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, the Andrology Clinic, as part of their training in Geriatrics or Clinical Geropsychology. They dealt with the patients’ majority of whom were over the age of 60 and some of them were above the age of 80s who were very much concerned about their sexual experiences and spoke candidly in discussion of their dysfunction in the sexual relations. Personal interactions have been able to shift the change among the patients (Aging and Human Sexuality Resource Guide, n.d.). The positive enhancement in acknowledging the significance of sexuality in the later life has been mainly done in three ways. Firstly it is done through spreading awareness through education and training, secondly, through the compromise on a tolerant environment for sexual expression and lastly through conducting of the research aiming at the conceptualization of the meaning of sexuality from the perspective of the older person (Low, et al, 2005). Conclusion The human sexuality is an indispensable component of every person’s identity. The paper seeks to analyze the social stigma attached to the sexuality of the older people through the detailed analysis of the traits persisting as well as preexisting in the modern societies. The sexuality of the older people has been subjected to the ridiculed behavior among the society and there has been a robust urge in the change of the attitude of the people with respect to this angle. However awareness spread in a rampant behavior has been helpful for the older people in regaining their sexual identity as well as experiencing their sexual experiences. However much work is required in understanding the sexuality of the older people’s perspective and it will be achieved only when we will be able to truly understand the meaning of sexuality. References Aging and Human Sexuality Resource Guide (n.d.), retrieved on June 20, 2012 from: http://www.apa.org/pi/aging/resources/guides/sexuality.aspx Bengtson, V. L. (2009), Handbook of Theories of Aging, Springer Publishing Company Chesnais, J. C (2000), EXPERT GROUP MEETING ON POLICY RESPONSES TO POPULATION AGEING AND POPULATION DECLINE, retrieved on June 20, 2012 from: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/popdecline/Chesnais.pdf Embodiment, sexuality and ageing, (n.d.), retrieved on June 20, 2012 from: http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/53/04700905/0470090553.pdf Gonzalez, C (2007), Age-graded Sexualities: The Struggles of Our Ageing Body, Sex Cult 11 ( 4), pp. 31-47, 17p, retrieved on June 20, 2012 from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e541b8fc-081f-4f48-adec-b87507931eaf%40sessionmgr114&vid=7&hid=15 Moore, K, L, (2010), Sexuality and Sense of Self in Later Life: Japanese Men’s and Women’s Reflections on Sex and Aging, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 25(2), pp. 149- 163, retrieved on June 20, 2012 from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a47b6acd-a740-482f-b69f-fa0c1f112dbc%40sessionmgr4&vid=5&hid=15 Morley, J. E. (n.d.), Sexuality and Aging, retrieved on June 20, 2012 from: http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/53/04700905/0470090553.pdf Low, et al, (2005), Promoting awareness of sexuality of older people in residential care, Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, 8, retrieved on June 20, 2012 from: http://www.ejhs.org/volume8/sexuality_of_older_people.htm Sex & Aging, (n.d.), retrieved on June 20, 2012 from: http://cregs.sfsu.edu/issues/sex-and-aging Read More