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Sex after sixty.<\/p>\nSex after sixty.<\/p>\n
Why not?<\/p>\n
There are so many good reasons to enjoy mutually consensual sexual intimacy at any age<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sex after sixty (just like sex before sixty) is good for your health, good for your mood, and good for your longevity.<\/p>\n If you need some inspiration, cue Joan Price’s lusty book Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n A fitness writer and former high school English teacher, Joan Price\u00a0now identifies herself an \u201cageless sexuality advocate.” She’s advocating big time for sex after sixty.<\/p>\n She’s spokesperson for the sex life of aging Baby Boomers.<\/p>\n Her advocacy comes in many forms.<\/p>\n One is a 269-page book, published by Seal Press. It’s called Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The book is divided into 15 chapters\u2014everything from \u201cPlug In, Turn On: The Quick Version of Everything You Need to Know about Sex Toys\u201d to \u201cWhen You or Your Partner Can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Price also includes advice for spicing up long-term relationships, reentering the dating scene, and fitness over sixty.<\/p>\n The book is a celebration of sex after sixty. Price is a woman who writes frankly about her own sexual awakening over the years and whose past history reveals that she\u2019s a true child of the 1960s.<\/p>\n (The way she describes it, she had several successful open relationships, including an open marriage, as well as many times in her life with multiple lovers and friends with benefits).<\/p>\n \u201cJuicy is an attitude,\u201d Price writes in a chapter entitled, \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Easy After Menopause.\u201d It’s \u201c\u2026 based not on the flow of our vaginal secretions but on physical well-being, emotional state, mental attitude, and love of sex.<\/p>\n “Here\u2019s to post-menopausal zest\u2014and understanding lovers!\u201d<\/p>\n The idea for the book came out of the relationship she was having. She met an understanding lover, a conservative man named Robert. Robert took his time before getting involved with her. Unlike Price (who never had children), Robert had spent most of his life in one long committed relationship.<\/p>\n Price wrote the book four years into their relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cI was 61 and in an amazing and intensely sexual relationship with Robert, age 68 \u2026 I was, indeed, having the best sex of my life,\u201d Price explains.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing hotter than sex between people who know their own bodies, are crazy about each other, relish taking lots of time, and honor sex as extremely spiritual and physical.\u201d<\/p>\n Interested in enhancing their lovemaking even further, Price sought out good books about sex over 60 to read.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t find any she liked.<\/p>\n \u201cI went looking for good sex books, both fiction and nonfiction, specifically aimed at my age group. I was surprised\u2014and turned off!\u2014by how few of these books existed, and how dry and unsexy most of them were,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cSome were much too academic to bring into the bedroom, many were outdated, and some were supposed to be titillating but weren\u2019t\u2014at least to us.\u201d<\/p>\n So Price decided to write the book she wanted to read.<\/p>\n Robert, a much more private person, supported her project but with some reservations.<\/p>\n In the beginning of the book Joan Price details how Robert would interrupt her writing for an afternoon in bed.<\/p>\n \u201cIsn\u2019t this better than writing about sex?\u201d he\u2019d ask as they snuggled together afterwards.<\/p>\n The lure to the bedroom wasn\u2019t enough to deter Price, though.<\/p>\n And her book\u2014which is full of exclamation points and positive affirmations about sex after sixty\u2014reads like it was written by a woman on a mission.<\/p>\n Price\u2019s mission is to celebrate, enhance, and affirm the sex lives of women (and men) over sixty.<\/p>\n She\u2019s talking about a subject the mainstream media rarely addresses. The mainstream media usually equates \u201colder\u201d women with 40-year-olds.<\/p>\n \u201cOn TV and movies, with very rare exceptions, people over sixty are portrayed as either asexual or pathetic and icky if they are sexually active,\u201d Price says.<\/p>\n Debunking the myths and creating a sexual space for 60-year olds (that is, writing the book) took Price about nine months.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole process was the most joy I\u2019ve ever had writing a book,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved recapturing old memories and getting a new perspective on those past experiences.<\/p>\n “I especially loved finding the right words for describing the interactions, attitudes, sensations, and emotions connected with my relationship,\u201d Price continues. \u201cOften I found myself squirming as I wrote and looking forward to [our] next date.\u201d<\/p>\n Although responses to her book have been varied (one reporter wrote \u201cNow that Boomers have discovered there\u2019s sex after sixty, could they please stop writing about it!\u201d), Price has received a lot of positive feedback for giving an honest look at an almost taboo topic.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the responses have been overwhelmingly positive and downright grateful that this topic is finally out in the open,\u201d says Price.<\/p>\n Of course, sex after sixty isn\u2019t always easy, as Price is the first to admit.<\/p>\n In \u201cBetter Than I Ever Expected\u201d Price includes a chapter about when one partner or the other is not able to be sexually intimate.<\/p>\n She also talks honestly about the changes wrought on women by menopause and on men by aging, gravity, and prostate dysfunction.<\/p>\n Writer Joan Price is an advocate for ageless sexuality and sex after sixty<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cThe hormonal changes of menopause cause all kinds of comfort\/libido\/pleasure changes, such as decreased natural lubrication and thinning vaginal tissues, which can make intercourse less comfortable,\u201d Price admits.<\/p>\n Decreased libido and slower responsiveness are also challenges older women face.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can take much longer to get aroused and much longer still to reach orgasm,\u201d she continues. \u201cYes, all of this affected me.\u201d<\/p>\n In the book Price writes about the first time she had sex post menopause (after a lull of several years in her previously active sex life) and how she had some bleeding in her vagina from tears.<\/p>\n \u201cOur hormonally deprived bodies challenge us with less lubrication; thinner, less resilient vaginal tissues; and often less physical sensation,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n \u201cOur bodies are slower to respond, and we may have more trouble reaching orgasm.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSexual response is in our brains more than our genitals,\u201d Price insists. \u201cMy lover and I are as turned on by each other as a couple of teenagers, but with the juicy addition of decades of life experience, self-knowledge, communication skills, and a sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n She says sex over 60 has made her both adventurous and accepting.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re willing to experiment and stretch our boundaries. Men will be relieved to learn how accepting most women are about men\u2019s changes and how to have great sex even when some parts aren\u2019t cooperating.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout the book Price includes quotes from women who took her survey\u2014women in their 60s who are having great sex.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a pre-selected group, which Price herself points out.<\/p>\n She sent out a call for interviewees. Price explained she was looking for \u201csassy, sexy women, age 60+ to share feelings and experiences openly and anonymously.\u201d So any women who didn\u2019t fit that description would not have responded.<\/p>\n Still, while it\u2019s interesting to learn so many of the intimate secrets of these women (who are all identified by a faux first name only), one can\u2019t help wondering if some of them\u2014and Price herself\u2014are protesting too much.<\/p>\n Price admitted that she has a history of failed relationships. And she was still in the honeymoon stage of her relationship when she began writing Better Than I Ever Expected<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n She\u2019s right, of course. \u201cJuicy is<\/em> an attitude.\u201d But with the relentless desexualization of older people (especially women), combined with the lack of respect shown to the aging, it\u2019s hard not to wonder if as many people have the attitude (and if Price is really as juicy) as the book suggests.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for great sex over 60 but not yet having it, this book might make you feel rather alienated and depressed. Wow, all those folks out there getting their groove on, where\u2019s mine?<\/p>\n But maybe, just maybe, it\u2019ll get you into your first sex shop purchasing your first sex toy.<\/p>\n After all, it\u2019s never too late to find your libido and start having sex over sixty.<\/p>\n Related articles:<\/strong> Published: January 9, 2009A spokesperson for senior sex<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Inspired by a new relationship<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Writing about sex after sixty<\/strong><\/h3>\n
An honest look at a taboo topic<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Price\u2019s solutions to your body’s changes for great sex after sixty<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Make liberal use of:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Sassy, sexy women age 60 and up to comment on\u00a0<\/strong>Sex After Sixty<\/h3>\n
Joan Price\u2019s tips for getting back to dating after the death of a spouse:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\nThe Keys to the Sex Kingdom<\/a>
\nThe Problem With Praise<\/a>
\nThe Joy of Debt-Solving Sex<\/a><\/p>\n
\nUpdated: December 31, 2022<\/p>\n
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This is a Spotlight Saturday post. Spotlight Saturdays showcase books and authors\u2014both contemporary and classic. If you\u2019re a published author with a new book coming out and you are interested in being showcased on JenniferMargulis.net, please ask your publicist to