Ageing and New Intimacies - by Sarah Milton (Paperback)

About the Book

Drawing on ethnographic research in salsa classes and oral histories this book details the everyday practices of femininity, heterosexuality and 'new' intimacies among women in midlife. Challenging conventional notions of the baby boomers it draws attention to how these practices are classed and raced, emphasising the quest for 'respectability'.

Book Synopsis

The 'baby boom' generation, born between the 1940s and the 1960s, is often credited with pioneering new and creative ways of relating, doing intimacy and making families. With this cohort now entering mid and later life in Britain, they are also said to be revolutionising the experience of ageing. Are the romantic practices of this 'revolutionary cohort' breaking with tradition and allowing new ways of understanding and doing ageing and relating to emerge? Based on an innovative combination of sensory ethnography in salsa classes and life history interviews, this book documents the meanings of desire and romance, and 'new' - or renewed - intimacies, among women in mid and later life.

Beginning with women at a transition point, when newly single or newly dating in midlife, the chapters look back over life histories to examine prior relationship experiences at different life stages, and look forward to hopes for future intimacies. In the navigation of romance and new relationships we see the sensory, sensual and affective nature of heteronormativity, and gendered practices that are informed by memories of the past, the imagination of previous generations and class-based desires. Challenging conventional notions of the baby boomers, this book illuminates the intersections of age, class, and white normativity, making important contributions to our understanding of ageing and generation, intimacy and gender.

From the Back Cover

'This salsa ethnography reveals a world of safe sensuality through which older women navigate new intimacies through touch, flirting and friendship, alongside contempt often visited to ageing sexuality. A must-read, this book disrupts normative ideas of ageing and sexuality.'
Sweta Rajan-Rankin, Reader, University of Kent

'Milton provides her readers with a nuanced account of the lives of a group of women in middle age negotiating their social and intimate lives and reflecting on the conditions under which they make these negotiations.'
Steph Lawler, Reader Emerita, University of York

The 'baby boom' generation, born between the 1940s and the 1960s, is often credited with pioneering new and creative ways of relating, doing intimacy and making families. With this cohort of men and women in Britain now entering mid- and later life, they are also said to be revolutionising the experience of ageing. Are the romantic practices of this 'revolutionary cohort' breaking with tradition and allowing new ways of understanding and doing ageing to emerge? Based on an innovative combination of sensory ethnography in salsa classes and life history interviews with women in mid- and later life, this book documents the meanings of desire and romance, and 'new' - or renewed - intimacies.

Beginning with women at a transition point, when newly single or newly dating in midlife, the chapters look back over life histories to examine prior relationship experiences at different life stages, and look forward to hopes for future intimacies. Making important contributions to our understanding of ageing, intimacy and gender, this book illuminates the intersections of age, class and white normativity in romance and desire.

Review Quotes

'This sensational book analyses gendered ageing and embodiment through older women's engagement with Salsa dancing. Milton skilfully interweaves generation, memory and new forms of intimacy in reframing normative ageing. This salsa ethnography reveals a world of safe sensuality through which older women navigate new intimacies through touch, flirting and friendship, alongside contempt often visited to ageing sexuality. A must-read, this book disrupts normative ideas of ageing and sexuality.'
--Sweta Rajan-Rankin, Reader, University of Kent

'Like all the best ethnographies, Sarah Milton's beautifully written study combines a careful and detailed analysis with a compelling narrative. Attentive to the complexities of class, race, age and gender and their interactions, Milton provides her readers with a nuanced account of the lives of a group of women in middle age negotiating their social and intimate lives and reflecting on the conditions under which they make these negotiations.'
--Steph Lawler, Reader Emerita, University of York

'In this lyrical account, Milton gently reveals the everyday ways that desire, love, romance and care are made and remade in midlife, helping us to glimpse the ways femininities are always on the move, lived and laughed about, even as they are painfully negotiated through the refractory lenses of class, race and gender. A subtle, profound book on the revolutions of ageing and intimacy.'

-- Professor Lisa Baraitser, Birkbeck, University of London.

'What a joyful book: a sensitively observed portrait of women in mid-life navigating new identities and relationships through the space of the Salsa class. This beautifully written book provides us with intimate, empirical perspectives on wider generational transitions around marriage, motherhood and work.'

-- Professor Charlotte Faircloth, UCL Social Research Institute.

'[in] this sensational book, Milton skilfully interweaves generation, memory and new forms of intimacy... revealing a world of 'safe sensuality' through which older women navigate new intimacies through touch, flirting and friendship, alongside contempt. A must-read, this book disrupts normative ideas of ageing and sexuality.'

-- Dr Sweta Rajan-Rankin, University of Kent.

About the Author

Sarah Milton is Senior Research Fellow in the Sociology of Health and Illness at King's College London.