The Sexual Revolution’s Last Frontier: How Silence About Sex Undermines Health, Well-Being, and Safety in Old Age

As the 77 million baby boomers who brought us the sexual revolution inexorably age, they will face a striking paradox. The ignorance, prejudice, and silence about sex and sexuality they fought so hard to upend are still alive and well in old age. We are a people reluctant to contemplate sex and aging together in the same thought, and even more reluctant to speak of it. Yet experience and emerging evidence indicate that such reticence can have significant implications for the health, rights, safety, and well-being of the large and growing older population in ways that are just becoming clear.