Sex and the Seasoned Woman 
asked by avi on November 20, 2006 4:42 AM
A seasoned woman is spicy. She has been marinated in life experience. . . . She can be alternately sweet, tart, bubbly, mellow. She can be maternal and playful. Bossy and submissive. Strong and soft. . . . The seasoned woman knows who she is. She could be any one of us, as long as she is committed to living fully and passionately in the second half of life.
In her most groundbreaking work since Passages and The Silent Passage, bestselling author Gail Sheehy reveals a hidden cultural phenomenon–increased vitality in women’s sex and love lives after fifty. Sex and the Seasoned Woman is the story of an intimate revolution taking place under our very noses.
Boomer generation women in midlife are open to sex, love, dating, new dreams, exploring spirituality, and revitalizing their marriages as never before. 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–once 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.
Written in Sheehy’s singularly compelling style, combining interviews and research, this book gives voice to more than a hundred fascinating and colorful women. The inspiring 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. Sheehy delineates a crucial link between cultivating a new dream and reopening the pathway to intimacy and sexual pleasure. She also examines the latest medical breakthroughs addressing symptoms that have unnecessarily curtailed women’s sex lives.
From women who find their sexuality reawakened by a younger lover, to couples whose marriages survive health crises and grow stronger, to women who finally find a soulmate in their sixties, to stories from seasoned sirens in their seventies, eighties, and even nineties, these portraits cover an enormous range of experience. In them, Sheehy locates the universal patterns that enable us all to recognize and understand our own lives.
In her most groundbreaking work since Passages and The Silent Passage, bestselling author Gail Sheehy reveals a hidden cultural phenomenon–increased vitality in women’s sex and love lives after fifty. Sex and the Seasoned Woman is the story of an intimate revolution taking place under our very noses.
Boomer generation women in midlife are open to sex, love, dating, new dreams, exploring spirituality, and revitalizing their marriages as never before. 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–once 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.
Written in Sheehy’s singularly compelling style, combining interviews and research, this book gives voice to more than a hundred fascinating and colorful women. The inspiring 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. Sheehy delineates a crucial link between cultivating a new dream and reopening the pathway to intimacy and sexual pleasure. She also examines the latest medical breakthroughs addressing symptoms that have unnecessarily curtailed women’s sex lives.
From women who find their sexuality reawakened by a younger lover, to couples whose marriages survive health crises and grow stronger, to women who finally find a soulmate in their sixties, to stories from seasoned sirens in their seventies, eighties, and even nineties, these portraits cover an enormous range of experience. In them, Sheehy locates the universal patterns that enable us all to recognize and understand our own lives.
Reviews
0%
0%
I loved Gail Sheehy's "Passages" and have, for many years, used the concepts in it in my work. Her great gift is to collect examples of complex human behavior and add value by then having these seemingly random observations come together into a sensible, useful pattern. She creates "buckets" and then deepens our understanding by explaining the contents of these buckets with insightful personal illustrations and storytelling.
Honestly, I'd not followed her career since that time, and read this book on recommendation of a friend. I was enormously glad I did.
Sheehy's pervasive curiosity and optimism inform every page. After being exposed to a fairly rigorous framework for viewing women after age 40, we learn that 40% or so are into or ready for functioning as "seasoned women." These are courageous, life-embracing people who have learned but not become embittered, and who enjoy life from a platform of risk acceptance out of self-confidence in these learnings.
It's not a retelling of "Sex in the City." If you're looking for endless dishing, you might come away really disappointed. However, there is plenty of wonderful storytelling. And the stories are not just about finally ending WMD* marriages. They also affirm the deepest satisfactions of long-term relationships and disclose some wisdom about how to keep those relationships viable and, more importantly, personally rewarding for all concerned.
My personal understanding of how women at this age think and function was deepened immeasurably. And I was left with a great optimism about the future we all share.
"Life is what we make it." Optimism is a choice, and the wisest choice any of us can make. I thank Gail for giving us all this wonderful book.
Honestly, I'd not followed her career since that time, and read this book on recommendation of a friend. I was enormously glad I did.
Sheehy's pervasive curiosity and optimism inform every page. After being exposed to a fairly rigorous framework for viewing women after age 40, we learn that 40% or so are into or ready for functioning as "seasoned women." These are courageous, life-embracing people who have learned but not become embittered, and who enjoy life from a platform of risk acceptance out of self-confidence in these learnings.
It's not a retelling of "Sex in the City." If you're looking for endless dishing, you might come away really disappointed. However, there is plenty of wonderful storytelling. And the stories are not just about finally ending WMD* marriages. They also affirm the deepest satisfactions of long-term relationships and disclose some wisdom about how to keep those relationships viable and, more importantly, personally rewarding for all concerned.
My personal understanding of how women at this age think and function was deepened immeasurably. And I was left with a great optimism about the future we all share.
"Life is what we make it." Optimism is a choice, and the wisest choice any of us can make. I thank Gail for giving us all this wonderful book.
reviewed by oden on November 26, 2006 2:21 AM
0%
0%
I first found out about this book in January, 2006 when Parade Magazine wrote 2 pages about it. I was shocked at how much I saw about my self in those short pages. Feelings which I thought I alone had and then to see it on paper and to know that others of "seasoned age" were feeling the same things made me feel vindicated and that I was not "one of a kind." Needless to say, as soon as it came out, I read it. Sheehy comes up with categories and then elaborates on them. It was very easy to place myself in one.
To my way (60+ years) of thinking, this is not a book about titillation but about feelings and enlightenment. It helped me reassess my life and goals because at this age, "it ain't over till it's over" and we should enjoy each day to the fullest.
Thanks Gail. You and I are the same age and we have "grown up" together from "Passages" to "The Silent Passage" and now to this book and each one was timely to my age at the time. I have recommended the other books to close friends as I read them and now have purchased several of these books to give to close friends so they, too, can find the Seasoned Woman in themselves.
To my way (60+ years) of thinking, this is not a book about titillation but about feelings and enlightenment. It helped me reassess my life and goals because at this age, "it ain't over till it's over" and we should enjoy each day to the fullest.
Thanks Gail. You and I are the same age and we have "grown up" together from "Passages" to "The Silent Passage" and now to this book and each one was timely to my age at the time. I have recommended the other books to close friends as I read them and now have purchased several of these books to give to close friends so they, too, can find the Seasoned Woman in themselves.
reviewed by noreason on November 29, 2006 6:25 PM
0%
0%
Gail Sheehy's SEX AND THE SEASONED WOMAN: PURSUING THE PASSIONATE LIFE also enjoys a reading by the author as it surveys women's love and sex lives after 50. Boomer women in midlife are still open to sex, love and marriage changes: Sheehy describes how, using interviews and research to fuel her insights.
reviewed by janmueller on November 29, 2006 7:17 PM