Last love: The 'double standard of ageing' and women's experience of gender and sexuality at mid-life.

This paper explores the concept of the double standard of ageing as applied to women's experience and perceptions of mid-life sexuality and love affairs. Drawing on a selection of popular and literary women's writing, it argues that the recurring trope or motif of the 'last chance' affair is an ideological vehicle that serves to age women by dividing their lives in two – pre and post-sexual, youthful and middle-aged - with all the associations of a decline in status and value that have, moreover, much broader implications for gendered equality. There is also a submerged theme of empowerment running through these women's stories, through which, among other things, it is possible to critique normative sexuality, which enshrines male privilege, at earlier points in the life course. However, the continued salience of the double standard suggests both the presence of a powerful tributary feeding ongoing gender inequality and the role that age plays in this. • This paper examines the double standard of ageing • It does so by looking at the mechanics of the concept and practice and how it works through the 'last love affair' • This is a powerful motif recurring in women's life writing which uses sexuality to provide a bridge from youth to age • This works powerfully on women to encourage them to see themselves as losing their place in the sexual regime • However, there are also powerful forms of resistance and empowerment associated with such experiences [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]