Fifty year old floosies and the Daily Mail

Daily Mail women know their place. Yep, they have jobs but not too high powered. They marry and have nice children who don't binge drink or wear hoodies .They enjoy sex just enough to keep hubbie happy and breed but not too much, none of that 'whore in the bedroom' malarkey .The soundtrack to their lives is Dido and Phil Collins .They go from wife to mother to granny then death , with less and less sex as they progress.

If they are unhappy and want a divorce they are very very selfish. If hubbie leaves then its probably their fault and they should now blend into the wallpaper, do voluntary work and find a nice hobby such as a book group.

There is of course another world and the Mail regularly scares them with stories of this place full of drunken floosies (otherwise known as a leftie bloggers piss up), gay soldiers and single parents with 30 children living on £2 million a year handouts. Hmmm, slight exaggeration on the last example, but you get the point.

Every now and again there is a warning , in case any Mail reading woman feels tempted to dip a toe into the degenerate other world.
One such warning came today with the headline "Are the frisky fifties putting their sexual health at risk?"

It starts by telling the story of 44-year-old Diane(thats not fifty !) who not only had sex with someone other than her husband , and at such an advanced age, but with a younger man to boot:

"When I was growing up, the only thing we worried about was getting pregnant," says Diane, an attractive blonde divorcee with two daughters in their 20s and her own PR company in South London.

"The issue of sexually transmitted infections simply never entered my head, because by the time the Aids epidemic came round I was married and obviously in a monogamous relationship. I was vaguely aware that there was a big increase in such infections, but that had nothing to do with my life."
But then Diane's 19-year marriage came to an end and she found herself back on the singles scene - a very different scene to that when she was first dating in her teens.

"Firstly, I found that all the men my age had let themselves go or were really controlling," she says. "Or if they had kept themselves in shape, were chasing women half my age."

Now this is her mistake. She should have resigned herself to a life of book clubs and gardening, or else made do with what was on offer . But no, off she went to the internet and found herself a younger man. Fun comes before punishment as any Daily Mail reader must know and she caught Chlamydia. The Mail goes on to call her shamefaced and just in case readers thought this a one off :

Diane's tale might sound like a sorry story of one woman's naivety and stupidity, but the fact is she is just one of the soaring numbers of middle-aged women who are at risk of sexually transmitted infections.

Diane herself says:

"It's had a huge effect on my life. I feel as if I daren't date a man as I might give him chlamydia, or catch it again. I haven't slept with anyone for four years. If I did, I would always insist on a condom now, but even then I would feel really nervous.

"What a way to look forward to my retirement in nine years time - I feel I will almost certainly be alone, thanks to my own crass stupidity."

So there you have it, you risk a lonely old age for stepping out of line.

Now of course there are a number of issues here. For a start why not address this to men and women? What about men taking responsibility for safe sex?I note there is no mention of men with younger women being 'naive' and 'stupid' and getting infections.
There is a real issue that the safe sex campaign is missing out people (not just women) who may have been in long term relationships and not really taken notice of them at the time. What is needed is better information, awareness and campaigns that are relevant to all ages not . Thats the issue, not calling women stupid and not giving them sole responsibility for safe sex and ignoring the men .

It should be applauded that women in their 40s, 50s and as the Mail puts it 'even' their 60s have sex. For an article headed 'frisky fifties' they also seem to have a problem with 40 year olds. WTF !! I think its great that women are refusing to conform as they get older and still see themselves as sexual beings.

Yep, when I get to fifty I'll trade in the grumpy old man for a toyboy ...


Pic : Whilst googling for a pic of a floosie came across a site of papier mache figures and this one was called Flora Floosie ;-)