ABSTRACT
The general contours of a deficit model of ageing are outlined in this chapter. While in recent years more attention has been given to the social contributions which older people have made and continue to offer (Gong and Kendig 2016: 24-25), a broadly deficit model orientation remains in evidence in both social norms and scholarly examinations concerning older people’s lives and relations with others, particularly in relation to intimacy/sexuality. In this setting, we outline normalising parameters of ageism which impact upon understandings of the conduct and meaning of older peoples’ uptake of internet dating, with regard to technology, intimacy/sexuality, health-centric and medicalised narratives and notions associating older people with inflexibility and social quietism. In considering these restrictive parameters, our intention is to explore how older people might creatively undertake heterodoxical direction exceeding gendered heteronormativity and thus to link their experiences of internet dating to social change.
