LOVE, SEX, AND AGING

ISBN-10: 0-316-10718-2
Editor: Edward M. Brecher
Title: Love, Sex, and Aging
Subtitle: A Consumers Union Report

Language: English
Place of Publication: Boston, Toronto
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Year of Publication: 1984
Format: 159x240mm
Pages: 441; Index, 431
Jacket Design: Steve Snider
Binding: Red cloth spine and blue boards in colour dust jacket
Weight: 764gr.
Original Price: N/A
Entry No: 2011024
Entry Date: 2^nd December 2011

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Love, Sex, and Aging is a comprehensive study of the sexual attitudes and activities of Americans over 50. To prepare this report — five years in the making— Consumers Union, the nation’s most respected information organization for consumers, has assembled personal experiences and statistical data from 4,246 men and women.


Most of the these 4,246 respondents have been married for more than thirty years, and most to their first spouse; others are widowed, divorced, remarried, or never married. What these women and men have to say about their experiences and feelings since age 50 is frequently surprising, sometimes astonishing, and almost always reassuring. Their observations put an end to the stereotype of the aging as lonely, unhappy, and sexually inactive or frustrated. Without understating the very real problems faced by older people, this book affirms that life can be highly enjoyable, socially rewarding, and sexually fulfilling from age 50 into the 80s and perhaps beyond.


The provocative and wide-ranging comments from respondents add a special quality to the statistical data. The depth of feeling, humor and openness will help readers appreciate the broad panorama of life as it is actually being lived by many older American nowadays.


Based on responses to detailed questionnaires, Love, Sex, and Aging is replete with practical information and sound advice on sexuality in the later years. The advice comes directly from respondents themselves, as well as from Consumers Union’s medical and psychological consultants.


Most respondents in this study were born during the same era (1905-1924) in which most participants in the celebrated Kinsey reports were born. The sexual activities engaged in since age 50 by today’s respondents are as unexpected as were the findings with which Kinsey startled the world decades ago.


Rich in fresh insights, broad in coverage, and sound in methodology, Love, Sex, and Aging is sure to take its place alongside the Kinsey reports and other classic studies of human sexuality.