My latest from the Bed, Bitch and Beyond blog at Bitch Magazine, in which I commit a wee bit of feminist-on-memoir violence against The Virginia Monologues, Virginia Ironside’s nastily sex-negative new book about the “joys” of being a woman over 60.
No Sex Please, I’m “Wrinkly”
Posted by BeckySharper in Thoughts, Aging, Bitch Magazine, Empowerfulment, Misogyny, Rants, Sex on Aug 22, 2009, 11:28am | one comments
One Response to “No Sex Please, I’m “Wrinkly””
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Goodness. I’m probably stating the obvious when I say that the excerpts say a lot more about Ironside herself than about aging in general. She seems to take the phrase “gender wars” quite literally. It’s awful that she went through the sexually active period of her life hating the whole experience and believing that sexuality was poisoning all of her social relationships. Now we know that the phrase “clench your teeth and think of England” still has some truth behind it. I guess.
I don’t agree with any of her observations about sexuality, but I will say that as a 55 year old, I’m noticing that I’m becoming invisible. It’s pretty depressing, actually. I find it’s people in their 20′s who are the worst about this. You smile at someone on the street and they don’t seem to see you. Quite disconcerting.