Thanks to an article on BBC.com, we now know that the vast majority of movie goers would prefer not to see people post-60 having sex onscreen. This fact dovetails with the vast majority of people post-60 who would prefer not to watch themselves having sex. In spite of this, film makers have lately started to encroach on this verboten territory. This is significant for two reasons. One is that this is the first time Life in the Boomer Lane has used the word “verboten” in a post. The second is that as more films choose to show elder sex, one of the few remaining barriers in film may come down.
As more and more awareness is thrust upon elder sex by boomer sites and articles (“Why Elder Sex is Best Sex Ever!” “Why Boomers Have the Best Sex on the Planet!” “I started to Have Wild Sex Only After Age 70!”), it’s inevitable that the idea of elder sex should morph into the actual vision of elder sex.
This is a major change in the way elder sex has been shown up until now. While there have been movies involving sex among mature people, they have mostly shown:
- Implied sex, behind a closed bedroom door, and then someone makes pancakes in the morning
- Shtick sex, provided by Viagra and Jack Nicholson
- Older man/Younger woman sex provided by any older actor and any younger actress who doesn’t notice that she is having sex with her grandfather
- Older Woman/Younger Man Sex provided by some still-great looking older actress and some random young guy who thinks older women must have vast collections of sex toys
- Sex between two fifty-year-olds who are still too young to qualify as “elder” and who have sex under lots of sheets and blankets and the next morning the woman wakes up wearing a bra.
The article notes that “…even older viewers prefer to watch a sex scene with younger people in it –it makes them forget that they’re not young anymore.”
That statement is being tested right now. You will soon be able to see what happens when two elders get it on, on camera. Andrew Haigh’s new film “45 Years,” just won a prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The film stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, who are in their late sixties and early seventies.
If the film is a success, we may not know whether it’s because people are watching it for the sex, or in spite of the sex, or because LBL’s legion of followers will read this post and immediately rush out and see the film.
The questions remain: Can older baby boomers, who, as everyone knows, are able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, reverse the preference for viewing only young sex?
And, will they still have pancakes in the morning?
notquiteold
August 27, 2015
I, for one, prefer not to watch myself. I am too afraid to be overcome with giggles.
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
I don’t even like to think about it.
Andrew Reynolds
August 27, 2015
I never got pancakes the morning after – maybe some high fiber cereal or nice dry toast, but never pancakes. Maybe I should watch these movies, clearly I am missing out on some good stuff – pancakes, really? Tell me they had butter and syrup on the pancakes and I’ll just die.
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
Yes, and the syrup was real.
mercyn620
August 27, 2015
Some things are better left to the imagination…And my pancakes better be whole wheat.
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
That would take a certain class of sexual partner, no doubt.
ninamishkin
August 27, 2015
Sex is 90-99% in the head, anyway. So it’s more exciting to watch young naked bodies. We haven’t seen those for a long time (except in movies). Old naked bodies we already know about. Why pay mega-bucks for what right there at home for free? Btw, as I recall pancakes come only on the first morning after. They’re not like a constitutional entitlement. They have to be earned.
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
I don’t even want to wait until morning. Why not pancakes right after?
ninamishkin
August 28, 2015
Well, LBL, you were the one who posed the question about pancakes in the morning. If you’re backtracking to posit pancakes right after, it’s fine with me. (I won’t be there.) Just remember, in the classic scenario, it’s going to be you who hauls her grateful ass out of bed “right after” to go mix the damn things, muck up a pan, find the syrup, and then do the washing afterwards. Are you sure you don’t want to rethink your “reply?” 🙂
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 29, 2015
Nina, you have just made me rethink the whole thing about sex. How about forget the sex and just go to some restaurant for pancakes?
ninamishkin
August 29, 2015
Done deal, LBL. Name your place and time!
Little Philly Willy
August 27, 2015
I really enjoy old people pornography. Is that weird or is it verboten?
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
I was about to ask if there was such a thing, then I smacked myself in the head and realized that there is any kind of porn one can imagine, and a lot one can’t. I say have at it.
btg5885
August 27, 2015
Who knew how erotic a word “verboten” has become? Pancakes anyone?
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
Ah, BTG, I so enjoy your comments.
domingosaurus
August 27, 2015
I don’t really like watching people have sex, (regardless of age.) I never have. I’m in the minority, i know. I’m not a prude, and I’m completely 100% non judgmental. (As long as no kids or unwilling participants are involved, do what you want!) but it’s just never been my thing. I’m a 41 year old, single male, and people who come over are absolutely amazed that I own absolutely NO porn of any kind. (True story!) Well I do have a Playboy magazine around somewhere, but it has a great interview with John Lennon in it, I swear! 🙂
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
Porn certainly isn’t for everyone. Speaking of Playboy, I had an uncle who had every Playboy ever printed. He always had the latest issue sitting out. I remember sitting in his living room, leafing through the magazine, looking at the cartoons. It was amazing that my parents never said anything. I was so used to it, that it seemed totally normal.
domingosaurus
August 28, 2015
Well Playboy really doesn’t count as porn anyway. (At least not by the standards of the last 40 years or so.) It’s actually a really well made publication that just happens to have a few nudie pics in it, and some dirty cartoons.
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 29, 2015
Agreed. It’s pretty tame, by today’s standards.
Deborah Drucker
August 27, 2015
I do not like watching graphic sex scenes because I prefer to have things left to my imagination. But I think it would be good to show older people and all people having sex, if it is done tastefully which means not showing every single thing, like porn, but it would normalize it. Cuz guess what? Older people are human beings.
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
Well said, Deborah.
Susan in TX
August 27, 2015
Multigrain. The pancakes, I mean.
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
Gosh, before you clarified, I was going in a very interesting direction.
Tina, The Bo Bina
August 27, 2015
The only time I’ll watch an older couple have sex is if Sam Elliott happens to be on my bed and there happens to be a video cam set up to record… just sayin’… 😉
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
Sam Elliott is a Major Hottie. Oh my.
Little Voice
August 28, 2015
This is Fabulous. I have to repost it, if that is okay. I don’t care what age the participants are, I’m jealous!
Little Voice
August 28, 2015
Reblogged this on that little voice.
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 28, 2015
Thanks for the reblog!
niceandnerdy
August 28, 2015
Old people have sex?? What will they think of next?! (LOL).
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 29, 2015
Old people sex was invented in 1996, when the first of the Boomers turned 50. In 2016 we are scheduled to invent really old people sex.
Catherine
August 28, 2015
To tell you the truth, I don’t want to watch ANYONE of ANY AGE doing the bouncy-bouncy. Some things just need to remain discreet. Sex is one of them. In film, imply it. There’s more to a story than sex. We all do it–I mean, birds do it. Bees do it. Even Little dogs with fleas do it. Teens do it. Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety (lets hope) somethings all do it–whether with a partner or by themselves. Even Josh Duggar does it–but with family and street walkers. We all know how to do it. People need to get over the fact that we old people get down’dirty. We be bangin! That’s it!
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 29, 2015
Oh my, I was really getting into the mental picture of this, until you mentioned Josh Duggar. Do you think he carries a bible to bed when he does the dirty with street walkers?
pegoleg
August 28, 2015
I’m not that interested in watching ANYbody having sex, but the main thing that disturbs me about your picture is the dog on the table. Huh?
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 29, 2015
Once again, Peg, you have this uncanny ability to cut to the chase (and wisely eliminate anything said in the post) to get to what’s important. The photo and painting gone askew are symbolic of the impermanence of memory, whereas the dog is symbolic of the fact that dogs will eat whatever they see, as long as humans are otherwise occupied and not paying attention.
alifetraveled
August 30, 2015
If it'[s Sam Elliott or Robert Redford, count me in. And the pancakes have to be served in bed with lots of maple syrup because we’ll definitely need some comfort food afterwards…otherwise I’m not sure I’ll have a sense of humor left without the maple syrup.
Life in the Boomer Lane
August 31, 2015
You have high sexual standards. I like that.