Barbara Marshall -- 'Sexualizing the Third Age: Medicalization and the Reconstruction of Sexual Life Courses'

Barbara Marshall spoke at The Medicalization of Sex conference in Vancouver, B.C. on April 29, 2011. The paper and talk she presented was called: 'Sexualizing the Third Age: Medicalization and the Reconstruction of Sexual Life Courses.' This paper takes the medicalization of late‐life sexuality as a starting point for exploring some contemporary ways in which sexuality and gender are constructed and negotiated in aging bodies. She looks at the ways in which the pharmaceutical industry, the medical establishment, and the media play a role in revising standards of sexual functionality, encouraging compulsory sexuality, and reconstructing sexual life courses in ways that have forged new expectations around sexuality in mid‐ and later‐life (the 'third age'). The 'third age' is represented in popular and cultural discourse by a rejection of that which is 'old'. Sexual function and sexual activity are linked to health and vitality, and 'sexiness' becomes an important means of distinguishing oneself as 'not old'.

This talk was recorded and produced by Meghan Murphy.