Doctoral Dissertation Research: "The Sexual Hush:" Medical Representations of Late-life Sexuality, 1850-1930

Pennsylvania State Univ University Park, University Park PA

Investigators

Abstract

Scientific discourses about sexuality in old age from this period thus implies associations between aging and disease, highly gendered preconceptions about the character of the elderly, powerful biological-functionalist models for sexual behavior, and uncertainty about the role of the elderly from a social-Darwinist perspective, all of which served to render late-life sexuality a problematic topic for contemporaries. One product of this network of ideas was the stereotype of the senile sex offender, or the "dirty old man," a development the researcher plans to treat in depth. She argues that the image of the villainous, lascivious elder was partly a product of wide spread sex reform and social hygiene campaigns at the turn of the twentieth century, and partly a product of the popular imagination as manifest in the popular press of the time. Further examination of the image of the aged sex offender and how the different national historical contexts varied (or didn't) requires additional research. The researcher is requesting funds for research in Paris and London where she will examine both court records and the popular press, in particular newspapers, which covered legal proceedings and sex reform movements.