Resexualisation of Older Lesbian and Gay Subjects in Film: an Analysis of ‘Cloudburst’ and ‘Gerontophilia’

Abstract

Older people’s sexuality is largely pathologised and framed more in terms of constraint or desexualisation and rarely in terms of pleasure. Given the paucity of literature addressing how older people can resexualise themselves to claim a valid sexual citizenship, this chapter analyses two independent Canadian films, Cloudburst and Gerontophilia to explore the possibilities for the normalisation of old lesbian-identified women (Cloudburst) and gay men (Gerontophilia) as legitimate sexual beings. We argue that resexualisation in both films is achieved through thought and practices open to older lesbian and gay people that challenge desexualisation, subvert stereotypes of sexlessness and involve ways of looking that enable ‘seeing’ of the allure and value of older lesbian and gay selves. Such depictions hold out hope for lesbians and gay men who can report feeling desexualised earlier in life compared to their heterosexual peers.