Mistletoe, mischief, and coming OUT

This hasn't been a secret nor have I tried to keep quiet on it but for some reason saying it here on my blog makes it real: I'm working on an "easily amused" podcast series about SEX.

SEX after 50, which seems to shock people far more than just SEX. Why is it that the topic of sex over 50 makes people giggle and then confess?

Are we more shy about sex than younger people or are we more shy about seeming older?

Well, I'm over it. I feel like I closed my Our Bodies Our Selves in 1977 and then forgot to update myself since then. As an old married broad with children I've spent way more years making my kids roll their eyes than my parents.

But no, I'm not planning to start oversharing my own (quite happy*) sex life, except in passing. I'm interested in learning what I missed while I've been busy travelling the world and having kids and, as of this week, launching those kids into legal adulthood. There are vocabulary words I don't recognize, places on the Internet I didn't know about, even technologies that expand our sense of what sexuality is. There's a growing problem with sexually transmitted illnesses (they even changed the name!) among older folk, and ageism in healthcare is a problem. Many boomers are caring for even older parents and dealing with issues like sexual rights in nursing home care!

I have always considered myself positive, if prudish, about sex. I expected to remain a sexual being until I was dead. No one told me I was supposed to stop in the second half of life, so it came as a shock and annoyance when the giggles turned to snickering. Nope: not having it. There are sexual health and happiness issues attendant to getting older but the right to the pursuit of sexual happiness is not reserved for the young: what a waste!

So, tally ho. (sorry. everything sounds like a double entendre now...) Go see the site, go subscribe to the podcast which will be available on iTunes and Stitcher and all the usual podcast sites, as well as available to listen online or download from SoundCloud. Learn with me; laugh with me!

OUR BETTER HALF, the podcast: first episode early January 2016!

** Deliriously, gloriously, delightfully happy, for the record, and to make sure my husband reads my blog.