Discourses on old age and ageing are framed in narrow and binary ways, either as a decline narrative or through discourses of positive and successful ageing. The decline narrative, on the one hand, is highly centred on the decline of the ageing body as frail, leaky and unbounded, and on how old age is characterised by non-productivity, increasing passivity and dependency. Discourses on successful ageing, on the other hand, rely heavily on neo-liberal imperatives of activity, autonomy and responsibility. In successful ageing, the specificities of ageing bodies are largely overlooked while the capacity of the old person to retain a youthful body, for example, with the aid of sexuopharmaceuticals, is celebrated. This article argues for the need of a theorising of old age that goes beyond the binaries of decline and success. Drawing on the work of feminist corpomaterialists Rosi Braidotti and Elisabeth Grosz, the article proposes affirmative old age as an alternative conceptualisation of old age.

Despite an increasing emphasis on sexuality as lifelong and part of healthy ageing, the voices of older men and women are seldom heard. Based on qualitative interviews with Swedish heterosexual men aged 67-87, this article discusses how men make sense of later life sexuality through narratives of intimacy. In the interviews, intimacy is described as something more or other than sexual intercourse, involving both touch and feelings of love and closeness in a committed relationship. Inspired by the work of Ahmed (The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 2004) the article discusses how narratives of intimacy shape the sexual subjectivities and bodies of older men. Intimacy is discussed as making sexual subjectivities and bodies possible beyond a coital imperative. As such, intimacy is of potential use to anti-ageist and feminist theorizing. However, intimacy is also discussed as a possible reinforcement of respectable heterosexuality. The article concludes that intimacy may be a way for older heterosexual men to navigate between current binary discourses of asexual old age and 'sexy seniors'.

Urban and rural geographies should be further included in feminist intersectional research on intimate partner violence (IPV). The article reviews existing research on the challenges facing rural victims of IPV. This research makes visible the specific problems rurality imposes on victims of IPV. However, research on rural IPV risks being misused and subsequently reinforcing othering and stereotypes of rurality and rural inhabitants. The article suggests that researchers alternate between intra-and anti-categorical approaches. On the one hand, rural victims of IPV should be analyzed as a neglected point of intersection, and on the other the diversity of ruralities should be acknowledged.

This paper explores the potential for cultural gerontology to extend its ideas of diversity in aging experiences by opening space to rethink conceptions of successful aging futures. We propose a 'queering' of aging futures that disrupts the ways that expectations of a good later life and happy aging are seen to adhere to some bodies and subjectivities over others. Drawing on feminist, queer, and crip theories, we build on existing critiques of 'successful aging' to interrogate the assumptions of heteronormativity, able-bodiedness and able-mindedness that shape the dividing lines between success and failure in aging, and which inform attempts to 'repair' damaged futures. Conclusions suggest that recognizing diversity in successful aging futures is important in shaping responses to the challenges of aging societies, and presents an opportunity for critical cultural gerontology to join with its theoretical allies in imagining more inclusive alternatives.

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