Sex and the seasoned woman : pursuing the passionate life Cover Image

Sex and the seasoned woman : pursuing the passionate life / Gail Sheehy.

Summary:

In this groundbreaking work, cultural observer Sheehy reveals a hidden phenomenon--increased vitality in women's sex and love lives after fifty. This is a new universe of passionate, liberated women--married and single--who are unwilling to settle for the stereotypical roles of middle age and are now realizing they don't have to. As life spans grow longer and as societal constraints continue to loosen, older women--free of the exhausting demands of young children, needy husbands, and demanding careers--find themselves ready to pursue the passionate life. They embrace their "second adulthood" as a period of reawakening. Combining interviews and research, this book gives voice to more than a hundred colorful women, whose stories tell of wives who reinvigorate their marriages after their children leave the nest, as well as divorced, widowed, and long-single women who find new dreams and new loves.--From publisher description.

Record details

ISBN: 1400062632
ISBN: 9781400062638
Physical Description: xii, 354 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: New York : Random House, [2006]
Copyright: ©2006

Content descriptions

General Note:

Includes index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Part I And Now What? 1 -- 1 When Is It My Time? 9 -- 2 Journey Ahead 16 -- 3 Tracking the Seasoned Woman 27 -- 4 Pursuit of the Passionate Life 46 -- 5 Sexual Path 56 -- 6 Dream Path 66 -- 7 Heartland Women Rediscovering Sex and Dreams 76 -- 8 Spiritual Path 86 -- 9 Sagas of Unseasoned Men and Women 97 -- Part II Romantic Renaissance 115 -- 10 Pilot Light Lover 123 -- 11 Lusting After the Younger Lover 127 -- 12 Menopausal Sex-Grin or Bear It? 136 -- 13 Seasoned Sex Is in the Mind 155 -- 14 Spicing Up Midlife Sex 167 -- 15 Sex and the Seasoned Marriage 174 -- Part III Learning to Be Alone with Your New Self 191 -- 16 Designing Your New Single Life 201 -- 17 A Nice Man to Visit, but I Wouldn't Want to Live There 209 -- Part IV Boldness to Dream 217 -- 18 Surviving His Midlife Crisis 224 -- 19 Cashing In on the Sexual Diamond 229 -- 20 Crossing the Sexual Border in Midlife 236 -- Part V Soul Seeking 241 -- 21 "I'm Giving Up Younger Men" 248 -- 22 Surprise Soulmates 253 -- 23 Love Tested by Fire 262 -- Part VI Graduating to Grandlove 275 -- 24 Later-Life Romances and Remarriages 282 -- 25 Sex and the Older Woman 292 -- 26 How to Retire When You're Still Wired 299 -- 27 Seasoned Sirens 310 -- 28 Love in the Fourth Dimension 323.