I recently did a great interview for Sexual Wellness News re a study released by JAMA Internal Medicine.
In the study, researchers examined the sexual beliefs and activity of 605 women age 40 to 65 for eight years. They found that women who deemed sex important were three times (3xs!) as likely to remain sexually active than women who did not – even into older age and regardless of physiological changes. Researchers also noted that vaginal stimulation (read: penetration) wasn’t required for sexual satisfaction, and intimacy may take a higher priority later in life.
Interesting, but what are the wider social and cultural implications of these findings? Well, that’s where I came in! Here’s a snippet:
SWN: How does our culture’s obsession with youth and “anti-aging” commercialism influence female sexual desire?
Dr. Tibbals: This is something I talk about at length in my forthcoming book, You Study What? As a culture, we glorify youth at every turn—beauty, sexuality, creativity, mental acuity, athleticism, you name it. In terms of sexualities and commercial media, we only ever really see one very narrow age bracket of (young) women presented as desirable. And women aren’t really ever shown desiring anything…well, at least not anything sexually. Thus, what we end up with are mass media messages telling us that women are desirable only, and only when they are young.
One can only be bombarded by such messages, which are themselves a significant dimension of our wider socio-cultural fabric, for so long before they start to have a negative impact on both sexual desire and feelings of sexual desirability. (here)
Check out even more comments and discussion re “Female Sex Drive Over Time: New Research on Whether It Wanes and Why” on Sexual Wellness News right — here.
What do you think?