50 Shades of Grey… Hair: Aging and Sex Work
Last week I stumbled upon this trailer for “Meet the Fokkens,” a documentary about two elderly twin sisters who worked as prostitutes in Amsterdam for over 40 years (one is still in the business). They freed themselves from the control of their pimps, ran their own brothel, and set up the first informal trade union for prostitutes.
Which prompted me to search for a video I had seen once, years ago, about a very normal looking 60-something woman who performed in many slow, sensual porn films with younger men. It was somewhat inspirational, seeing that sexual pleasure is not exclusively the province of young, super thin models. It also creeped me the hell out, to be perfectly frank. It was embarrassing to realize this, but I was so unaccustomed to seeing the bodies of older adults that I didn’t know how to react.
When I went to find the video again, I had no luck. Not remembering her name, I was submerged in a pile of MILF and mature porn. And, as you may or may not know, those terms are bandied about, being applied to any female porn performer over the age of 25.
Not deterred, I looked for other things to share in the same vein.
- There was the interesting NYT article called The Greying of Naughty, which examines older adults in the porn industry and features such performers as Vicky Vette, Red Fontana and Howard Stern regular, De’Bella.
- A short list of porn performers over the age of 50
- A Young Turks episode about the world’s oldest porn star, Shigeo Tokuda and a TIME article about Japan’s burgeoning interest in elder porn.
Considering that older adults are now the population in which STI rates are increasing the fastest, we need to get comfortable with discussing sexuality and aging. If not for us personally, then so we can have “the chat” with our friends and family who might be at risk because they perceive themselves as out of the danger zone.
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Have you see the public service announcement “Safer Sex for Seniors”?
Yes! It’s great! Dr. Melanie Davis, whom you can hear her SWT interview here (http://sexwithtimaree.com/2011/08/31/sex-with-doctors/), was involved in its creation!