‘Comfortable in my own skin’: A new form of sexual freedom for ageing baby boomers

Abstract

‘Freedom of sexual expression’ is a slogan that has long been synonymous with the generation known as the baby boomers during the 1960s and 1970s. But does this catchphrase still have currency for the men and women in this cohort who are mostly now over the age of fifty? This paper explores the question by reporting on qualitative data from a multi-method Australian study about the influence of growing older on baby boomers' sexual expression. The sample comprised ten interview participants and fifty-seven Internet survey respondents, aged between 50 and 70years. Following a theoretical perspective known as the sociology of emotions, the analysis of data reveals that baby boomers' emotional experiences range from constraining to liberating sexual expression, to a paradoxical combination of both. The article argues that while sexual freedom is still an important concept to baby boomers, there are new emotional dimensions to its expression, particularly in the form of comfort and confidence, that come with age.