Introduction Ageing and Sexualities

Until quite recently, older age has been associated with asexuality. However, there is a growing interest in moving beyond the stereotype of older people as asexual (Gott, 2005) and developing a critical research agenda for ageing and sexuality (Marshall, 2011). Recent research has shown that sexuality remains relevant in older age (Carpenter and DeLamater, 2012) with many older people continuing to have fulfilling and meaningful sexual lives in later life (Lindau and Gavrilova, 2010), albeit understood through the much-critiqued lens of ‘successful ageing’ (e.g., Katz and Marshall, 2003).