As Kee said, just based on the data for women over 60 incidentally diagnosed with or seeking treatment for STI's, I'm going to go with a big "OH HELL YES" with regards to your question.
That sample accounts only for women over 60 who a) sought out gynecological care through a specific set of providers and b) were subsequently diagnosed with and treated for one or more STI. This is important. There are no specific numbers noted in Kee's post, but since we know (thanks, CDC!) at least some women over 60 are sexually active in some form of a relationship, and common sense would tell you that only a small number of those women would seek out gynecological care (due to the unnecessarily high hysterectomy rates in the U.S) at all, the rest thinking that no uterus/ovaries/possibly cervix = no need for continuing gynecological care, then common sense would also tell you that there's a huge fraction of sexually active women over 60 out there.
My guess for the reason that this is not publicly discussed is both societal and generational. It used to be, you went through menopause (aka "The Change") and boom! you magically lost any and all sex drive--or at least, society told you that you were no longer supposed to have a sex drive. Women who could no longer produce offspring were no longer of any real use aside from housekeeping, cooking, volunteering at the local hospital's Women's Service League, etc. Of course, women over 60 have probably always been sexually active, but if you don't ask the question, you don't have the answer. Anyway, while societal mores have changed and more older women are more open--at least with their physicians--about their active sexual lives, the ingrained impetus to keep quiet about sexual activity remains.
Posting in the forums is the best way to introduce yourself. If you have any questions, please do PM myself or anyone else with the word "Moderator" in red under their name. To do this, just click on their picture and then select "Send Message" from their profile. Otherwise, you're doing a lovely job of introducing yourself to other members.
Jennifer
I don't know what to say, other than that I am a tremendous fan of Nicholson Baker. I've had a serious literary crush on the man since...well, let's go with "a long damn time", shall we?
His pacing, and willingness to hurtle a reader forward only to rear that reader back, is amazing. My little piles of words are mere savage attempts at the divine.
Happy Canada Day!
It's miserably hot here. Like 80F. I'm working tonight, because of course I am. Anyway, I wish everyone well.
Congratulations, Jen #1!! So happy for you on so many levels.
Like, I money them regularly? Or big name-on-the-building giving back?
Providing it's the former, ACLU, RAICES, Bloodworks Northwest, Wonkette (Rebecca Schoenkopf), The Washington Post, and a few others, in rotation. The named entities receive money monthly (some more than just money, like Bloodworks Northwest).
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it's done. Congratulations, FB, and thank you for your contributions to Lush.
Grammarly, Scrivener, etc. are fabulous, but Stephen King hardly became Stephen King just by chance, just by choosing the correct tool.
Me, I use a healthy dose of reading (non-erotica, and mostly non-fiction) plus the APA Style Guide and an English dictionary. Works okay.
Tights? Like opaque stockings? They're ubiquitous up here--I even have pairs that are lined in very thin Polarfleece.
I did see a young woman on the bus recently, wearing just a pair of torn-up black semi-opaque tights. It was...startling. Yah, let's go with "startling". It wasn't clear if she was intentionally walking around like that, or simply wasn't aware.
I like bleu cheese on plain Romaine lettuce; otherwise, it's ranch, or ranch mixed with Sriracha. Not highbrow but absolutely delicious.
Yes. Verbal posted a really good one a while back--maybe early last year? Perfectly brilliant. Do it.
Hey, all. I know it's been a while. A Rusty Nail, double, please, bartender.
On the topic of kids: You do not realise how great a job you've done as a parent until it's all well and done. There are a thousand things I wish I could have a do over on..and a thousand things I inadvertently did right. I'm on this emotional roller coaster since my oldest is graduating HS in less than a month--my postman, Kevin, a guy who's known me and the boys since forever, probably thinks I'm losing it, since he delivered the graduation announcements yesterday afternoon and I burst out crying.
Somehow the announcements make it real. Hence the crying. And I find myself thinking truly stupid things about him going to university in the Fall, like how is my son going to put a bandaid on with no one to press it down and kiss it, and also, what if he forgets where he put the bandaids? Never mind that I have assembled a first aid kit for him which includes an actual sterile field. And other things, like how will he ever remember to put on socks or underwear if no one is there to to lay out his clothes for him? Which, rationally, is stupid, but in the Mum part of my brain, it's entirely possible that he could forget in which order his clothes go on and no one would help him.
Anyway. I'll go over in the corner with Coma and Tose and drink a little.
Gretchen, welcome to Lush. Your best plan for editing your story--if it's the piece already posted in this thread--is to submit it to the site, so that a story moderator/verifier can review the piece. It will likely be rejected if submitted as-is, but our moderator/verifier team will include a note with regards to what needs to be cleaned up (spacing, grammar, spelling, etc.).
You might also want to be reading other authors, to get a sense of pacing and what not to do, as well as what to do. One glaringly obvious thing is the listing of "stats"--your first line, describing your protagonist in numbers, instead of words. Allow the reader to develop a sense of the characters' appearances using words, not numbers. The Old Man and The Sea did not begin with an exacting detailing of the height of the protagonist, or the fathom depth of the sea. Nor did Hemingway ever give those numbers--they were not necessary to the story itself.
I work as an itinerant florist, one or two Sundays a month. I still graciously accept flowers on a first date--although I do have the habit of rearranging the bouquet, clipping here and there with florist's scissors, removing this and that.
Guys who end up with a second or third date quickly learn that going to my jeweller and selecting something that he knows I will enjoy wearing, and wearing often, is a better way to wow me.
I've had a diagnosis of garden-variety depression (read: no suicidal ideation, no mood swings, etc.) and anxiety since I was 19. I am really not good at talk therapy, so I have been very fortunate to have fantastic psychiatrists--one retired last year, so now I have a "new" psychiatrist. I've been on escitalopram (Lexapro) 20 mg QD and clonazepam 1 mg TID PRN forever, and since the combination works so well, we've never messed about with it.
In my view, mental illness is much like asthma--you can't cure it, per se, but you sure can manage it to the point that it no longer affects your activities of daily life.
Congratulations, H. Love you, fam.
To all the others, including those who didn't make the top ten, thank you for participating. Racking up those votes is quite a thing! Congratulations.
You fuck. You bloody fuck. You left a beautiful 7 lb. 8 oz. girl motherless and her father adrift in grief. Why her? Why fucking her? Beautiful labour, beautiful delivery, she nursed her little girl, and then...what, You had to test us? Had to remind us that You hold absolute power over life and death? Fucker.
As You know, I've spent all day going over every single thing that I did or didn't do, that my team did or didn't do, and this is the kind of self-doubt that isn't going away for a while--but then, You already know that, don't You?
Not quite able to muddle through the question to give you an answer...maybe try again?
