Customer Reviews

Still Doing It

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I found the book inspiring. I am 70. My partner is 75 and we are still doing it and still find "it" exciting. We know that sexual activitiy hasn't decreased. In fact we get better. We are more imaginative. We are slower and deeper in touch with the here and now. The book shows we are not the only ones. The book is informative, but even more, it is fun to read.I am glad the word is out the the "elderly" are not only wise while still doing it, but, like fine wine, get better with age. My specialty in the field of psychology is sexology, so I speak both personally and professionally.

Thomas Matola, Ph.D.

First, I'm one of the contributors to this lovely book, so I'm not entirely neutral. That said, I've read Still Doing It from cover to cover now, a little at breakfast every morning for a week, and enjoyed it immensely. It's a book I'll go back to. The individual accounts of sex, adventure, relationship, and erotic playfulness would do credit to 20 year-olds, but these writers are in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Perhaps what I liked best was the sense of easy truthfulness, a precious gift in any conversation about sex: nobody's straining to prove anything, and there's no prudish self-censorship, either. We hear from men and women who arrived at their erotic discoveries in older age (first orgasm decades after menopause) and those who carried an exceptional sense of sexual engagement into old age from early youth. We find swingers in their seventies and contented solitaries with vibrators, old marrieds and new sweethearts, the conventional and the kinky. Along with America's bizarre prudishness about sex comes our insistence that children and old folks have no sex at all. Maybe this playful book will disabuse us of part of that notion. Love and sex are an ocean we swim in, and some of us geezers are still happily splashing across the Channel. Here's a quote from one account, "My Night with Zorba:" "Confused, excited and dazed, I allowed Nikos to lead me behind the thick hedge. We would be well hidden, but I had never done anything like this before. My head was spinning. My body shook in spasms. My labia opened like a flower . . ." Many thanks to Joani Blank for yet another delicious contribution to the literature of honest, uninhibited sexuality!

A beautiful, honest, erotic book -- I was struck all the way through it by how well all of the writers know their sexuality, and how well they work at taking care of whatever their kind of sexuality may be. It made me wish to be older, to be free to know, and say, exactly what I want and do not want, to be willing to look less than perfect and young and still parade in the nude, and to recognize exactly what matters in taking care of myself and others.

In Still Doing It, Joani Blank has gathered an impressive roster of contributors writing on the subject of their sexuality as men and women over the age of 60. Tender, funny, frustrating, spiritual, each contributor offers a bold and reassuring description of how they left behind years of celibacy, dealt with medical issues, and overcame society's aversion to open sexual communication to achieve pleasure, satisfaction, and sexual fulfilment with new lovers or life-long partners. Each of these personal essays is a reassuring model for others facing similar situations brought on by maturity and a desire for continued personal growth and expression within the framework of what human sexuality has to offer throughout the so-called "Golden Years" of life.

How refreshing to enjoy the candor of men and women over 60. In writing about their sexuality, they have given all of us a reason to be open and honest about having sex, no matter what age. I was pleased to read the ingenuity and infinite variety and would recommend this book to all who want to dispel the myth that sexual activity slows as we age then finally ceases.

Still Doing It: Women & Men Over 60 write about their sexuality Joani Blank, Editor

November, 2000. Reviewed by William E. Schamadan, MD, a retired Ob-Gyn physician.

I have to give this book mixed reviews because of the mixed messages it sends.

It is a collection of 34 different stories, written by folks over age 60 who were willing to share their sexual enjoyment, prowess, and creativity. It certainly is an affirmation of sexual longevity for those middle-aged and younger people who might be having some worries about an age related cutoff to their present sexual functioning. This is good.

Some of the stories read like "Penthouse Letters", only the ages have been changed. The stark reality of the sexual descriptions might be offensive to some, but reading these stories could help young adults realize, acknowledge, and make provisions for the sexual activities of their parents and grandparents. This, too, is good.

What I find problematic in the stories, however, is the small number of single-marriage couples. There are no more than four (and perhaps only two) couples who seem to have had only one marriage. The message from the rest of the stories is that first marriages are only for learning and childbearing, while second marriages and subsequent liaisons are for sex. Perhaps that is the reality of our present society, but I'm not yet willing to believe it. The frequent descriptions of vibrators, dildos, S & M, and B & D might intimidate some gentle souls who believe they are still enjoying a fulfilling sex life without such accouterments.

Does this book really serve a purpose? Men and women over the age of 60 who are still doing "it" don't need a collection of case histories to encourage them to continue. Perhaps if this book were circulated among a younger audience, however, it could increase an awareness that human sexuality does not have an arbitrary age limit, and in so doing might move societal attitudes through the progression of disbelief to tolerance to acceptance to affirmation that women and men over the age of 60 are still enthusiastically doing it.

William E. Schamadan, MD Mansfield, Ohio.

An excellent book for those who want to discover the truth about sex in real life. It helps dispell the myth that sex is only for those under the age of 30. In fact it is a refreshing example of what sex can and should be.

For those younger you might discover what real sex and real fun is by reading some of the stories. Yes as one reviewer noted some of the piece read like a Playbiy or Penthouse "letters" column (how interesting the good Dr admits he knows of this) but so what? Fact is when it comes to talking about sex, most Americans still have a two ways of talking. Either in a kinky manner or talking in a round about manner.

Any book that is blunt and spits the facts out is great, in my opinion. And this is one book my local library will get!

I think this is a great book. There are insights into sexual problems that the writers have experienced and the varied solutions that they have worked out. Most of them have been successfull but a few haven't. As a couple, over 60, who have had our share of sexual problems, we have found it helpful to read a story or 2 to each other in bed. It helps to know that others have problems too. I feel the book would be helpfull to couples and individuals uder 60 as well.

I bought Joani Blank's 'Still Doing It' for my father who is 73. After he'd read it, he phoned me and said with renewed enthusiasm, "Thanks so much for the book, son. It really helped. Even though I still do it with the old girls at the retirement home, we'd all completely forgotten what it was that we were doing."

Skimming too quickly over the Amazon review of "Still Doing It" was a mistake. Careful consideration would have revealed clues to the book's contents. The book is edited by the proprieter of a "sex toy" business. Several of the stories are obvious endorsements of her business and the products she sells. All appear to be written or heavily edited by the same person. Nothing wrong with men and women enjoying love and sex into their late years. However the older people I know are able to talk about it in grown up language instead of four letter words. I consider the book porn and trashed it as soon as I knew what it was. "The New Love and Sex After 60" is a much better and more helpful book.