Unruly temporalities: Older queer women and non-binary people narrating later-life sexuality

TL;DR

This paper examines how older queer women and non-binary people experience and narrate their sexuality in later life, challenging norms around aging and sexuality.

Contribution

The study introduces the concept of queer temporalities to understand non-linear and evolving sexual identities in later life.

Findings

Participants described sexuality as unstable and non-linear across their life course.

The assumption of compulsory (hetero)sexuality and compulsory non-sexuality in aging were evident in participants' narratives.

Later-life bodily changes offer opportunities to challenge normative views of sexuality.

Abstract

In this paper, we explore queer temporalities in relation to queer women and non-binary people’s sexuality later in life. Drawing on 30 interviews with 32 queer women and non-binary people aged 49-72 about sexuality and intimacy in later life, we highlight the participants’ stories about the instability and non-linearity of sexuality across the life course. First, we examine how our participants narrated later-life changes in their sexual subjectivity and how the assumption of compulsory (hetero)sexuality manifests in the participants’ stories about the unfolding of their sexual identities over the life course. We then analyze the compulsory non-sexuality imposed on women as they grow older. Finally, we explore the potential of reinterpreting sexuality in later life to destabilize pervasive normative notions of sexuality by analyzing the bodily changes the participants described. Rather than eradicating difference, such an analysis of later-life sexuality and queer temporality opens up the possibility of affirming changing desires and pleasures and acknowledging the body’s agency in shaping later-life sexuality.