Thursday, September 10, 2009

Not Your Grandfather's Bed

Here's a health topic you don't hear much about: from RH Reality Check, Sex and Dementia: Shrouded by Taboo.

You hear a lot about sex, of course, but usually with the unstated idea that it's only really seemly in the right sort of people.

Relatively young, fit, attractive people, preferably. Not older people, as a rule, or people with nonstandard bodies.

But since sexuality seems to be pretty standard in humans, one can imagine a lot of times that doesn't work out too well. The article covers some interesting points:

Another funny thing about sex and Alzheimer’s is that it touches upon so many hot button issues: the right to privacy and pleasure, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, gender stereotypes, monogamy versus infidelity, sexual exploitation versus consent, masturbation, pornography, and icky denial over our parents, the elderly, or those with disabilities desiring or doing it. If we’re sexual beings from cradle to grave and the brain is our biggest sex organ, could “Alzheimer’s sex” be a cultural flashpoint? Ground zero, who wins when the absolute of religion and tradition clashes with the continuum of sexual sovereignty and human rights?

Definitely worth a read.

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