“A estas alturas del partido…”: experiencias identitarias y gestión sexo-afectiva en las vejeces lésbicas

Abstract

This paper analyzes how older lesbians negotiate and signify their identities and sexualities at this stage of their lives. I appeal to feminist gerontology and the life course as a way to demystify and rethink old age, highlighting the complexities of this process. Based on the analysis of the life histories of eight lesbians over sixty living in Bogotá, I argue that their subjective and identity experiences in old age are constructed, among other ways, around processes to disidentification with the terms lesbian, senior adult and old. This disidentification emerges as a consequence of the stigma surrounding these terms. I also explore the relationship between lesbianism, sex-affective management and old age. Their stories reveal that the interpretations that these women make of their old age also configure their experience of sexuality at this stage.