Hot Octopuss and Joan Price Team Up to Provide Senior Sex Information
I am thrilled to announce this collaboration with a company I’ve admired and endorsed for years. Read what Hot Octopuss has to say about our Senior Sex Hub. — Joan
Sex is Back!
-Over 50s rejoice-
Leading sex toy brand Hot Octopuss brings sex for the over fifties back to the fore with the launch of their Senior Sex hub with the help of ‘Senior Sexpert’ Joan Price
Sex is back! (*well actually it seems it never went away!). Contrary to popular belief, sexual intimacy and enjoyment is alive and kicking amongst the over 50’s. A recent article by USA Today states that “Many adults aged 65-80 are having sex (and most are pretty satisfied)”, the article goes on to say, “Sex is not just for the young: 40% of U.S. adults aged 65-80 say they are having sex — and even more of them, 73%, are satisfied with their sex lives”, the highest satisfaction rate out of any demographic.
A topic often side stepped, it turns out that this demographic is really into sex, so much so that award-winning, London-based sex toy company Hot Octopuss has decided to embrace this by launching a dedicated hub specifically designed to offer these sex positive seniors a sexual well-being destination dedicated to their specific needs.
Leading the charge and directing Hot Octopuss at every turn is world renowned “Senior Sexpert” Joan Price, internationally acclaimed advocate for ageless sexuality, award winning author and now, in-house senior sex expert and ambassador for Hot Octopuss at www.hotoctopuss.com/seniorsex.
Joan Price
Joan comments,
It’s about time that senior sex is brought out of the shadows and who better to do this than in my opinion, the world’s most progressive and inclusive sex toy brand, Hot Octopuss. I’m delighted to be partnering with Hot Octopuss on this exciting project and with my own dedicated “Dear Joan” page, I will personally be there to offer candid advice to fellow seniors https://www.hotoctopuss.com/senior-sex/who have specific questions about better sex. From hot solo senior sex, to arousal and orgasm, or communicating better in a long-term relationship, no subject will be off-limits.
As well as having the chance to receive candid advice from a world leading expert, the hub’s focus will be on providing a one-stop-shop for everything senior sex, providing in-depth coverage of topics such as post-menopausal sex, sex with ageing penises and vulvas, ED, arousal, orgasm and masturbation, as well as offering sex toy tips, suggestions and senior reviews.
Hot Octopuss Co-founder Julia Margo explains,
The sexless seniors stereotype is so outdated and simply untrue. A fifth of the toys we sell on our site are bought by customers aged 55 or over. This, along with my own experience talking to older customers and senior sex experts over the last nine years at Hot Octopuss is that information and tools addressing issues such as menopause, stiff joints and erectile dysfunction can make all the difference to an individual’s sex life as one gets older.
Unfortunately, few sex toy companies discuss any of this, or represent older people in their marketing, which contributes to the misconception that the information is unwanted, whereas this couldn’t be further from the truth. We want to do things differently and understand that no matter how old you are, you are never too old to enjoy a fulfilling sex life. We are really proud to be working with Joan on the launch of our ‘senior sex’ hub to give all our older customers the very best in advice, so that they can continue to enjoy the sex life that they want and deserve throughout their lives.”
The Hot Octopuss Senior Sex hub and Ask Joan pages launch on 5th May 2020.
About Joan Price
Joan Price is the author of four books about sex and ageing, including the award-winning Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud About Senior Sex and her latest, Sex After Grief: Navigating Your Sexuality After Losing Your Beloved. Joan is known by global media as the voice of senior sex. Her blog has been offering sex news, views and reviews since 2005. Aged 76, Joan continues to talk out loud about senior sex, partnered or solo.
About Hot Octopuss
Founded in 2013, this award-winning, London-based brand designs innovative, cutting edge sex toys that not only look gorgeous, but are designed to work with the body. They passionately believe that pleasure is a fundamental right for everyone. Their sex toys have been taken back to the drawing board, and are developed using real people, some serious science and ingenious designs. Their collection of unique toys have been designed for everybody so whether you’re cis, trans, non-binary, have limited mobility or are older, there’s a Hot Octopuss toy to suit.
Solo Sex is Real Sex
March 2020: I’m spotlighting this post, originally written for Valentine’s Day 2016, for a couple of reasons: (1) I have so many new readers now; (2) This post drew some marvelous reader comments, and I hope to encourage more!
“We need to acknowledge that solo sex (solo masturbation) is real sex,” I asserted, and ten people in the audience quoted me on Twitter immediately. I was speaking at the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit in August 2015. This was my first time attending Woodhull, and it was an amazing experience:
The Sexual Freedom Summit features human rights activists, sexuality educators and researchers, professionals from the legal and medical fields, authors, sexual freedom movement leaders and organizational partners all working toward the time when sexual freedom is fully recognized as a fundamental human right.
It seems to me that “sexual freedom” includes freeing ourselves from our society’s outdated notions, especially as they restrict us, as seniors, from full sexual expression. No one is standing at our bedroom door proclaiming, “Thou shalt not masturbate” — at least I hope not — but many of us have internalized the idea that giving ourselves sexual pleasure is wrong, or a depressing substitute for “real” — aka “partner” — sex.
At our age, accepting self-pleasuring as “real” sex is even more important than it was in our youth. Here are some reasons:
- Many of us do not have a sexual partner at this time of our lives.
- Many of us who do have a partner are not able to have full sexual expression with that partner, due to medical or relationship issues.
- Our retreating hormones and decreased blood flow make it easy to forget about sex because there’s less urgency. Yet the less we experience arousal and orgasm, the more difficult it is to get there when we want to.
- Our responses change as we age, and the most direct way to stay in tune with what we need for sexual pleasure is to experiment with our own hands — and, of course, sex toys.
- Sexual arousal and orgasm are good for physical and emotional health. In The Ultimate Guide to Sex after 50, I list 33 reasons why sex is good for you — and by sex, I mean with or without a partner.
For those of you who would tell me (as people do, surprisingly), “Hey, masturbation is inferior to sex with a loving partner,” I would answer, “There’s nothing inferior about sex with the person who knows you best.” Plus the obvious — “How nice that you have a loving partner. Many of us don’t.”
Whether we’re pleasuring ourselves because it’s sex with ourselves or no sex, or we enjoy private sex, or maybe we just want to have fantasy sex with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, let’s agree that solo sex is not only real sex — it’s delightful sex.
Readers of my Naked at Our Age Facebook page (which I hope you’ll “like”), had this to add:
- We are 58 and 57 and we both enjoy solo sex. Sometimes, we do it together. Watching can be quite erotic but more often, we’ll do it before bed (usually separately in that case) to help us sleep. Mrs. has a variety of vibrators and we’re both definitely in favor. – Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe, erotica author.
- I’m a 67 y.o. man, and in the famous words of Woody Allen, I’m good at sex (with women) because I practice a lot when I ‘m alone. (;-). Seriously, it has a lot to do with why I’m still so erotically alive. And yes, incorporating mutual self-stimulation into play with partners is really exciting, and in some ways can feel even more emotionally intimate than PIV [penis in vagina].
- I’m 53. I have been going solo for the past 11 years (not by choice), now that I am single I am looking forward to having a partner once again. The solo sex has been a necessity!
- I am 50. In my community sex is forbidden to singles and there is controversy about whether masturbation, therefore, is ‘sinful.’ My stance is masturbation is not sinful and not forbidden to those of us who are unmarried. I think “Solo Sex is Real Sex” but my Christian community may not accept such a statement.
- I am 58 and flown solo for quite a few years. On the one hand, it’s nice because I know all the best places and the exact technique. On the other, it’s obviously not as much fun as having a partner. However, that’s not always possible and I much prefer it over climbing into bed with a jerk. I wish I had more money for some of the great toys you’ve shown. I might never want a partner again if I did.
As Valentine’s Day approaches (note: I originally wrote this post for Valentine’s Day) and we’re bombarded with commercial messages about how to make the day more romantic with our loved one (soft lighting, mellow music, gifts of chocolate and roses included), let’s remember this:
Love starts with how we feel about ourselves, how giving and patient and accepting and loving we can be with the person who’s been in our life the longest. Let’s celebrate that with our own special touch (so to speak).
Go ahead and call me a “little old lady”!
In January 2007, in the early years of this blog, I wrote a post titled, “Don’t call me a ‘little old lady'”!” Thirteen years later, my feelings have completely changed. Here’s what I wrote then:
I’m always surprised by how acceptable it is in our society to call older people disparaging names.
I was reading a newspaper article today about Barack Obama’s popularity in Illinois, which quoted Emil Jones Jr, president of the Illinois Senate, as saying, “Sitting across the table from me was a little old lady, said she was 86 years old,” who hoped she’d live long enough to vote for Obama for President.
I was startled by reading this mature woman described as “a little old lady,” and I didn’t like it. OK, I’m little (4′ 10″), 63 years old, and female — but “little old lady” belittles my maturity and experience and sounds like it would be uttered while patting me on the head. Didn’t the 86-year-old elder deserve a more dignified description? If she had been male, would she have been described by Mr. Jones as “an old geezer”?
…I know there’s no consensus about what to call older people without offending us! I like the term “senior,” although I know some dislike it. I like “elder” because it connotes wisdom and sounds respectful, even reverent — but I don’t feel old enough to deserve being called an elder. “Mature” is a nice adjective, though “mature adult” sounds stilted.
Here’s how I feel now: If a little old lady can make her living writing and speaking about senior sex — which I do — and keep her body strong by teaching line dancing, practicing Pilates, and walking miles a day — all of which I do — then go ahead and call me a “little old lady.”
I feel I can own, even enjoy, being called “little old lady” at this time of my life. I’m little (4’10”) and old (76), and my life is thrilling, so what’s the problem? I’ve also grown into the term “elder” (though not “elderly,” please).
When Gloria Steinem turned 40 and a reporter told her she didn’t look 40, she said, “This is what 40 looks like!” We continue to redefine what aging looks like, feels like, and acts like. Join me!
“Little old lady” at age 75
Q to you: How do you feel about being called “senior,” “old,” and so on? I invite you to comment. You’ll see 18 comments from the first post — let’s add to those. I know we won’t all agree, so please disagree politely.
I AM by Angelika Buettner: celebrating the beauty of aging bodies
“Using my camera to pry deeper into woman’s psyches, I started to photograph timeless beauty, trying to capture what lies beneath the skin, woman’s hidden desires, and hidden conflicts. I am motivated to help women overcome their inhibitions and insecurities about their bodies. I believed if I could persuade enough women to let themselves be photographed naked, I could prove to them and prove to the whole world, ageless beauty does exist. Women over 40 and 50 and 60 and even women in their 80’s and 90’s radiate from within and are beautiful at every age.”
— Angelika Buettner
I AM is a book of nude photographs of 121 women between the ages of 40 and 100, and it’s so much more. Photographer Angelika
Buettner celebrates these women — their beauty, wisdom, humor, and audacity. From the first page, this book shines with a celebration of women’s beauty as they age. No makeovers, no retouching: these are women celebrating their time of life — their authenticity, self-acceptance, and joy. I AM kicks at our outdated notion that we age out of beauty and desirability. Quite the contrary, as Angelika Buettner and her 121 brave women illustrate.
Each page of photographs glows with images of the splendor of aging. The women proudly bare their wrinkles and loose skin; their large breasts, small breasts, breasts 
that droop, or maybe no breasts at all. But the point is that they are at home in their bodies, proud and courageous in their skin. What a lesson we can learn from them!
Buettner explains her mission:
It’s been my passion, my intuition, my vision, my desire, my obsession, and my quest to reveal and showcase ageless beauty of women over 40 to make us all more visible. Using my camera as a therapeutic tool and instrument of social commentary, I have attempted to capture, something raw and refined, edgy and elegant, honest and pure. Naked portraits of strong women who dare to step out of their comfort zone…
We, meaning, the women over 40, who are ready to own their sensuality without being sexualized, stand naked and bare it all. There is no judgement involved in how our bodies look when we see into each other’s souls. We accept we are all goddesses.
We are so much more than our bodies.
We can celebrate our pasts, nourish our present selves and relish what our futures will hold.
In Buettner’s words, “Each picture has a story to be told.” Lucky for us, we get glimpses of those stories. Each woman speaks in prose or poetry about what “I AM” means to her personally. For example, this from Ruth, age 100:
There is great power in this book. If you’re looking for a special Valentine’s gift for a lover or yourself, I urge you to splurge on I AM, a gorgeous book that you’ll be proud to display on your coffee table for all to see. Buettner put 7 years into making this project a reality, and she spared no expense making the finished product stunning — a big book (12″ x 9″ hardcover, weighing 4 pounds) on thick, glossy paper. Purchase it here.
