* Research
     * Current projects and groups
     * Older People’s Understandings of Sexuality (OPUS) Research
       Initiative

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     * Research
     * Current projects and groups
     * Older People’s Understandings of Sexuality (OPUS) Research
       Initiative
          + Project aims
--
          + Research activity

Older People’s Understandings of Sexuality (OPUS) Research Initiative

   The Older People’s Understandings of Sexuality research initiative was
   established to investigate older people – generally those over 60 - and
   sexuality and intimacy – a much neglected topic.

   Its broader aims are to challenge stereotypes of older people as
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   older people's personal lives and challenging stereotypes of them.

Ageing, sexuality as ridiculed or erased

   There are various reasons why OPUS is needed. Older people are often
   excluded from sexuality and intimacy in popular culture or they find
   their sexuality routinely ridiculed in so-called gifts or birthday
   cards. Golden Girls and Last Tango in Halifax (BBC series) are
   exceptions to the rule when there are few (positive) media images of
   older people’s sexuality. Despite the extension of choices over care,
   the subject is erased from or else marginal to government's,
   practitioners’ and academics' concerns.

   Sexuality/intimacy are often eclipsed by (and not included in)
   considerations of maintaining physical and emotional independence. We
   recognise that this state of affairs may be more acute and possibly
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   homes, this still amounts to half a million individuals.

   If longevity continues to improve, demands to address sexuality and
   intimacy in care or service provision and more widely in society and
   its institutions will grow, especially given that the baby-boomers who
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     * Research
     * Current projects and groups
     * Older People’s Understandings of Sexuality (OPUS) Research
       Initiative
          + Project aims