IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v10y2020i3p47-d377215.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Hunt for Noble Savages: Romance Tourism and Ageing Femininities

Author

Listed:
  • Ieva Stončikaitė

    (Group Dedal-Lit, University of Lleida, 25003 Lleida, Spain)

Abstract

Casual sexual encounters are closely wedded to leisure travel, and have received a lot of attention in both theoretical and empirical work. However, the relationship between romance tourism and female ageing remains largely under-researched. This article offers critical insights into the interplay of the successful ageing and sexual relationships abroad of older women travellers. It shows that romance tourism has both positive and negative implications for women’s physical and psychological health and wellbeing. Although exotic escapes help reconnect women with their youthful selves, enhancing a sense of self-confidence and challenging the narrative of decline, casual sex may also generate conflicting feelings once the travel romance is over. This article also encourages the rethinking of the complexities of ageing femininities, sexual activity and health risk in ‘silver’ romance tourism today. Additionally, it argues that the sexual health guidelines and information campaigns should adopt a more multifaceted approach to sexual expressions, and encourage alternative views towards sex and sexuality in later life, in order to not create a rather oppressive ideology among older women.

Suggested Citation

  • Ieva Stončikaitė, 2020. "On the Hunt for Noble Savages: Romance Tourism and Ageing Femininities," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-10, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:10:y:2020:i:3:p:47-:d:377215
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/10/3/47/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/10/3/47/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barbara L. Marshall & Stephen Katz, 2012. "The Embodied Life Course: Post-ageism or the Renaturalization of Gender?," Societies, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-13, October.
    2. Gott, Merryn & Hinchliff, Sharron, 2003. "How important is sex in later life? The views of older people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1617-1628, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ieva Stončikaitė, 2017. "‘No, My Husband Isn’t Dead, [But] One Has to Re-Invent Sexuality’: Reading Erica Jong for the Future of Aging," Societies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-11, May.
    2. Jacqueline Low & Claudia Malacrida, 2013. "Embodied Action, Embodied Theory: Understanding the Body in Society," Societies, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-5, July.
    3. Matthew Lee Smith & Caroline D. Bergeron & Heather H. Goltz & Tammy Coffey & Ali Boolani, 2020. "Sexually Transmitted Infection Knowledge among Older Adults: Psychometrics and Test–Retest Reliability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-10, April.
    4. Hordern, Amanda Jane & Street, Annette F., 2007. "Constructions of sexuality and intimacy after cancer: Patient and health professional perspectives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(8), pages 1704-1718, April.
    5. Speer, Susan A. & Tucker, Samantha R. & McPhillips, Rebecca & Peters, Sarah, 2017. "The clinical communication and information challenges associated with the psychosexual aspects of prostate cancer treatment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 17-26.
    6. Bob Erens & Kirstin R Mitchell & Lorna Gibson & Jessica Datta & Ruth Lewis & Nigel Field & Kaye Wellings, 2019. "Health status, sexual activity and satisfaction among older people in Britain: A mixed methods study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-20, March.
    7. Ieva Stončikaitė & Núria Mina-Riera, 2020. "A Creative Writing Workshop on Sexuality and Ageing: A Spanish Pilot Case Study," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-12, July.
    8. Alison Pullen & Torkild Thanem & Melissa Tyler & Louise Wallenberg & Andrew King, 2016. "Queer Categories: Queer(y)ing the Identification ‘Older Lesbian, Gay and/or Bisexual (LGB) Adults’ and its Implications for Organizational Research, Policy and Practice," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 7-18, January.
    9. Shuyan Yang & Elsie Yan, 2016. "Demographic and psychosocial correlates of sexual activity in older Chinese people," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5-6), pages 672-681, March.
    10. Ana Carvalheira & Cynthia Graham & Aleksandar Stulhofer & Bente Traen, 2020. "Predictors and correlates of sexual avoidance among partnered older adults among Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and Portugal," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 175-184, June.
    11. Hyojung Park & Sunhwa Shin, 2015. "Development and psychometric testing of a semantic differential scale of sexual attitude for the older person," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 526-532, December.
    12. Ieva Stončikaitė, 2019. "Critical Approaches to Ageing Body Politics in the Works of Erica Jong," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-10, June.
    13. Félix Neto & Maria da Conceição Pinto, 2013. "The Satisfaction with Sex Life Across the Adult Life Span," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 767-784, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:10:y:2020:i:3:p:47-:d:377215. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.