Boomers still go boom-boom

I love this story in today's Arizona Reporter:

Sex hasn't lost its importance to seniors

Forty years have passed since the flower-power children of the '60s experienced the start of the sexual revolution, but today's senior citizens are still on a quest for sexual fulfillment.

When the heart is willing and the body isn't, seniors search for solutions. They're using Viagra to get back their va-va-va-voom, turning to sex therapists for tips, donning their reading glasses for Sex and the Seasoned Woman or Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty. And they're getting advice from clerks in adult retail shops about products that will better the bedroom experience.

Only about 5 percent of those 60 and older believe that sex should be left to the young, according to researchers for AARP....

The article describes how people in their 60s, 70s and 80s are exploring intimacy as they age, and "thinking outside the box," as one gentleman explains.

Part of that, of course, is sex-tech. And it's not just Viagra and libido pills. These folks are embracing the sexual revolution 2.0 as much as we young 'uns are.

Surgery on his prostate changed the way he and his wife can have sex, at least for now, said Tom, a 65-year-old Fountain Hills resident. Tom recently walked into the Castle Megastore adult shop in far north Phoenix, looking for a device that would enhance their sex life.

For several minutes, he followed a clerk around the brightly lit store, stopping to compare one item with another. He wanted to know just how the item functioned, how it differed from the one he didn't pick off the rack. Tom could very well have been comparing hammers at a hardware store.

Before long, he had what he needed: a device that will allow him and his partner to have intercourse.

Is it just Americans who don't want to be reminded that their parents or grandparents have sex, or is that a universal reaction? I just now realized I don't know – I'll have to ask the Sex Drive forum's international contingent.

I've recently vowed to stop being embarrassed to talk sex with my mom, while still remaining sensitive to her own innate modesty. I've noticed her trying to be more sanguine about the topic, too. (She did always say that when I'm 35 and she's 55, we'll officially be peers ... about 87 days to go, Mom.)

I for one am delighted that seniors are talking about sensuality and sexuality, reminding us that sex and intimacy are life-long pursuits.