Sexual Behavior and the Elderly in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Sexual Behavior and the elderly in Cross-Cultural perspective

Research Report

Aging is the biological process of senescence, a process which is present in almost every living organism, with only one exception. The word senescence as defined by Wikipedia, is derived from the Latin word senex, meaning or "old age" or "advanced in age".   Senescence occurs mostly due to a cell's inability to multiply and replace dying cells after reaching an advanced stage of life, thus the body begins to suffer from cellular degradation.   This is the period in life where one joins the ranks of what is considered to be “elderly”.  In the United States elderly is viewed as one who has reached the age of 65, although elderly discounts and benefits can begin as early as age 50.  In the cross cultural context, elderly may be defined in a variety of ways because of the difficulty in ascertaining exactly how old an individual is who may not know their chronological age.  Similarly, what is defined as “sexual activity” can differ throughout the various stages of life and more importantly as it relates to this paper, in the cross-cultural context.  Although information on sexual behavior among the elderly in the cross-cultural context is limited and subject to the same challenges of sex research in general, the information that has been obtained  paints a picture that is very different from the industrialized Western, youth-oriented culture.  An ancient Turkish proverb illustrates the overall positive view by the majority of traditional and preindustrial cultures when it states “young love is from the earth, while late love is from heaven.”

Western (industrialized) culture holds to a set of negative attitudes in regards to sexual behavior and the elderly.  The social and cultural messages of sexuality and aging that are

delivered in the mass media influence how older people perceive themselves in addition to how the general population views sexuality and aging.   In print media, older adults are portrayed as cognitive impaired, annoying, lonely, and sometimes downright mean individuals whose lives revolve around loss and sickness; these depictions are absent of any positive expressions of sexuality.  In contrast, portrayals of older adults in prime time (and daytime) television programs (and commercials) appear to be somewhat more positive.  The introduction of sexual enhancement products for the elderly in conjunction with the marketing strategies used (media being one of them) is one attempt at re-shaping the perspective, in addition to the positive portrayals of sexy, powerful older adults on television (i.e. Erica Kane of All My Children fame is in her sixties now).   But in general, the mindset is that while sexuality is a desirable and enjoyable part of life, once an individual reaches a certain age, sex either should cease, or is viewed as taboo.  This repugnance for elderly sexuality has been widely documented among college students, adult children of elderly adults (it seems “gross” to think of your grandparents “doing it”), among health care providers, and in elder care institutions.  The article “Sexual Issues for Aging Adults” published by Texas Tech university discussed the theorized Geriatric Sexuality Breakdown Syndrome in our society through which elderly people internalize the negative attitudes to which they are exposed and perceive themselves as nonsexual. It is also indicated that this syndrome can be broken eventually with education to change society’s negative attitudes but more importantly by educating aging adults about their sexuality and helping them develop ways to cope with the negative attitudes they encounter.

In the Archives of Sexual Behavior, Rhonda L. Winn and Niles Newton used Human Relations Area Files to compare the sexuality of older adults in 106 cultures. They discovered

that less than 3% of these cultures have societal sanctions or prohibitions against older people having sex.  An analysis of the data gathered from these cultures indicated that 70% and more than 84% of these societies reported sexual activity among the elderly male and female members of society.  In many Eastern cultures men regularly engage in sexual relations beyond the age of 100, and in Middle Eastern cultures beyond the age of 80.  African cultures maintained that impotence is not a normal function of old age, but an unnatural loss of ability resulting from illness or witchcraft.   In most of these traditional cultures, menopause was not associated with either more or less sexual activity among older women; menopause simply represents a “point in a woman’s life.”  In certain African and Asiatic cultures, an older women’s physical attractiveness is not related to her sexual status; a toothless older woman is considered as sexually desirable as a younger woman.  Given this range of cross-cultural information, we can conclude that sexual activity among the elderly in many (traditional) cultures is not only acceptable but is common practice throughout most of the world.

        Another difference noted between Western culture and other cultures studied was that although a double standard appeared to be in place regarding with elderly sexuality, it appeared to be in the opposite direction.  In particular, older women were more likely to engage in sexual relations than older men, and older women were often described (in more than 25% of the cultures) as becoming less sexually inhibited and more sexually aggressive with age.  In certain South American and Eastern cultures, older women were designated teachers for younger men that possessed less sexual experience.  Older women also were described as commonly taking younger men for husbands or sex partners because there were few male partners available of


their own age.  Other older women in South American, Eastern and North American Indian cultures were described as expressing themselves sexually in various ways past the age of 60.

The Western stigma that lies behind sex and the elderly does not necessarily influence their overall activity.  While overall rates of sexual activity do generally decrease with age, a large percentage of seniors still engage in regular, satisfying sexual activity, including masturbation, petting, oral sex, and intercourse. CNN reports on a study that was published by the New England Journal of Medicine which indicates that sex with a partner in the previous year was reported by 73% of people ages 57 to 64; 53% of those ages 64 to 75, and 26% of people 75 to 85. Of those who were active, most said they engaged in sexual activity two to three times a month or more. Women at all ages were less likely to be sexually active than men, this may be because they also lacked partners; far more women were widowed.  Older individuals whose health not compromised in any way were nearly twice as likely to be sexually active as those in poor or fair health.   This study clearly indicates that many seniors are just as sexually active as younger people.