Sex May Be Wasted on the Young

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

One of the oldest stereotypes of human behavior is that seniors have
little interest in sex. The Stoneses have had considerable experience
with older people—experience that, along with 100 interviews with
people between the ages of 40 and 85, has convinced them that the
stereotype is dead wrong. They have learned from seniors.

Lee Stones, currently program coordinator for a seniors project with
Parks and Recreation in Kitchener, Ontario, has written an advice column
aimed at seniors for nine years. Michael Stones, a clinical psychologist
and a professor in the Department of Health Studies and Gerontology at
the University of Waterloo, is the author of numerous scholarly papers
on gerontology. Their book covers advances in the behavioral and medical
sciences for the treatment of age-related sexual problems that this
happily married couple have been studying for some 30 years.

The authors start with the simple propositions that sexuality is an
integral part of personhood and that there is a universal need to be
loved and touched. They examine sexuality from cultural, emotional, and
physical standpoints, including male problems with erection and possible
cures. Although the book offers practical advice, it is not primarily a
sex manual but rather a sound cultural and psychological study written
with sympathy and humor.