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Ageing, Sex and Disability

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What if we reimagined ageing, illness and disability not as barriers to sexuality – but as starting points for new forms of desire, intimacy and pleasure? This groundbreaking book challenges the si...
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  • 01 April 2026
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What if we reimagined ageing, illness and disability not as barriers to sexuality – but as starting points for new forms of desire, intimacy and pleasure?

This groundbreaking book challenges the silence and stigma surrounding the sexuality of older, ill and disabled people. Drawing from sociology, health studies, cultural theory and lived experience, the authors explore diverse expressions of sexuality that defy long-established views.

From queer ageing to sex work and legal rights, this collection offers bold, inclusive perspectives and policy ideas that centre pleasure, agency and dignity. A vital resource for academics, practitioners and anyone invested in social inclusion and justice.

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Price: $135.00
Pages: 304
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Imprint: Policy Press
Series: Sex and Intimacy in Later Life
Publication Date: 01 April 2026
ISBN: 9781447375975
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gerontology, Age groups: the elderly / old age, SOCIAL SCIENCE / People with Disabilities, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Human Sexuality (see also PSYCHOLOGY / Human Sexuality), Disability: social aspects, Sex and sexuality, social aspects
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‘This edited volume provides valuable insights for anyone seeking to improve their understanding and knowledge of sexuality, disability and inclusivity in later life. The authors weave together scholarship from various disciplines to provide a fresh way of looking at older age and sexual citizenship. Students in the social sciences in particular will benefit from the insights offered in this collection.’ Sharon Hinchliff, University of Sheffield

Ricardo Iacub is Professor of Psychology of Ageing at the University of Buenos Aires.

Paul Simpson is an Honorary Research Fellow, Sociology, at the University of Manchester.

Trish Hafford-Letchfield is Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde.

Foreword by Brian de Vries

1. Introduction: Motives, themes, issues and chapter synopses - Ricardo Iacub, Paul Simpson and Trish Hafford- Letchfield

PART I: Identities

2. From new possibilities to late-onset affordances: reflections on lesbian experiences of ageing, disability and (non-)sex - Giulia Nazzaro, Nika Looman and Katrien De Graeve

3. Ageing, disability and sex: older lesbians ageing into physical disability - Debra A. Harley

4. Old hen makes good broth: body practices, eroticism and disability in older binary trans women’s bodies - Cuauhtémoc Sánchez-Vega

PART II: Representations, spaces and cultures

5. ‘Vivas’: a look at female ageing through art-activism - Rosa Cattana

6. Aesthetics of eroticism in older people with dementia portrayed in contemporary cinema - Ricardo Iacub and Paul Simpson

7. Cripping sex as we age: caregiver memoirs and anti-ableist approaches to sex - Elizabeth Kleinfeld

8. Sexy, sick, grand daddies: cultural representations of cross-generational intimacy and older gay men ageing

with/into disabilities - Jami McFarland

9. Decoding the sexual aesthetics of illness, disability and later life: towards a Marxist critique - Paul Reynolds

PART III: Law, policies and practices

10. Sexuality and folly in old age: how far do rights go? - María Isolina Dabove

11. Sexuality and dementia: navigating a grey area - Josep Fabà and Feliciano Villar

12. Coming with heart: sex work with older and disabled people - Mark Henrickson and Patricia Morgan

13. Ageism, gender difference and older physically disabled and learning disabled people as sexual citizens - Mervyn Eastman

14. Is there sex after incontinence in later life? Towards a new aesthetic - Trish Hafford-Letchfield

15. Final reflections and overarching themes: new sexual aesthetics and older, disabled people - Paul Simpson, Trish Hafford-Letchfield and Ricardo Iacub