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Vicki Iovine

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Like A Virgin, Again

Posted: 05/22/09 09:37 AM ET

One of the few bright promises sustaining me while trudging through a divorce is Sex With a Stranger. I haven't had it yet, nor do I see any immediate prospects, but I'm keeping the faith that it is out there. It's been 27 years since I've had it, and I seem to think about it, a lot. In preparation, I've even started kegeling again at all red lights and TV commercials. Four pregnancies and four babies; so much fitness to achieve in so little time.

Here's the awkward part of my fantasy life: it suffers from arrested development.

I imagine making intense eye contact across a crowded room and then feeling the obsessive anticipation that he'll come find me. There would be, of course, hours of kissing and swollen lips after. After the frenzy of our first touch, we would grab and tear at each other's clothes and I would be conquered. (I mean that in a feminist way, of course.) We would linger over the discovery of each other's body, naked before open windows that let the sunlight dapple us and the light breeze caress us. Clearly I've stolen the inner life of one of my teenaged daughters.

I remember a scene from Terms of Endearment where Aurora, Shirley McLain's character, prepares for sex with Jack Nicholson's Astronaut and she's fussing around her room dimming lights and draping her body in a diaphanous peignoir. There's no sunlight, hell there's no light at all when she's finished. When I first saw the movie, I thought it was a very good idea to hide any body over 45. Now I realize that I am an Aurora. Today, showing someone my whole kit, without intravenous drugs, could kill me. And while I'm on the topic of i.v.'s, I suspect I'll want sedation when I see what the guys in my dating demo look like without their khakis, too. A little paunch won't trouble me, much, but man breasts or that white stuff that builds in the corners of older guys' mouths are deal breakers. The only young people who have those conditions are transgender candidates or on antipsychotics.

In my twenties, I had a Girlfriend, Marcie, who was dating a famous and great looking movie star who must have been about forty. She told me, "It's not so bad if you're on top of an old guy, but if he's on top, his whole face looks like it's melting on you." What does that mean for my breasts and belly? Help, Aurora! You know what I'm talking about, too. Have you ever taken a yoga class with mirrors and caught a glimpse of your upside down face during a forward bed? I have, and now, if I drop something, I bend from the knees rather than the waist to pick it up.

I am trapped in a 25 year-old's fantasy with a body thirty years her senior. And oh, what a busy and physically challenging three decades it has been. At my stage of life, is there even time for foreplay. Or maybe there's up to three hours of it if his erectile dysfunction drug goes wrong. Or maybe he'll need three hours of intercourse...oh but the brain reels at the thought. And speaking of those little blue pills, should I just assume all the guys my age who are seducing women my age (there must be two or three, at least!) are taking them? Call me crazy or perhaps naïve on this one point, but do guys feel horny before they take the pill, or is the whole experience just another pharmaceutical experience for my generation? Well, gee, that is romantic, isn't it? I just hope my potential partner takes it in secret rather than leaving it on the bedside table with a glass of water. Taking his top denture out and putting it in the glass of water would be a bigger turn on.

One thing that is consistent in all my fantasies is that none of the guys I conjure at those red lights and commercials has a face. I'm not anywhere near the point of wanting to get to know someone on an emotionally intimate level. That takes way too long, and familiarity can lead to contempt way before I climax. I just need to break the ice in a spectacular way and get it out of the way. Perhaps now is the time to check out Craig's List for the first time in my life. Let's see; Masseur, Under Thirty-Five, Good Hands...

 
 
 
One of the few bright promises sustaining me while trudging through a divorce is Sex With a Stranger. I haven't had it yet, nor do I see any immediate prospects, but I'm keeping the faith that it is o...
One of the few bright promises sustaining me while trudging through a divorce is Sex With a Stranger. I haven't had it yet, nor do I see any immediate prospects, but I'm keeping the faith that it is o...
 
 
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10:49 PM on 06/13/2009
This is the funniest thing I've read on being single and older.
Wonderful!

You know Sex and the City doesn't have much to offer for
older ladies. I hope Ms. Iovine takes up
the cause.
01:20 AM on 05/30/2009
My uncle divorced and later remarried a woman who is plain as can be and quite pear shaped, while he is trim and fit. They had common interests and seem to be happy as clams (20 years now).
My grandmother was widowed and within a couple of years started dating her college boyfriend (divorced). they were in their 60s and their marriage lasted over 35 years till she passed away.
Anyway... love happens! And sex too!

Good luck Vicki!! You're still as funny as ever.
10:39 PM on 05/28/2009
Do you remember when in our 20s we found 30 to be ancient. why waste time with a mid life crises 35 year old, yawn, been there....Sex with an older man is great!!!! An older man is more likely to make your experience a priority whoo hooooo.oooo... Being the younger woman, at 50+, is fabulously erotic. And nope in my experience viagra is not on every fellow over 50, 60's night table. Guys get sexier when they are more mature. They can focus longer. Older men are much more likely to have their priorities in order, having worked out the bugs on earlier wives. Give the big boys a chance, I did and WOW..
11:00 AM on 05/26/2009
Vicki,

Don't stress it and don't worry about who you have to kiss. If you don't feel the desire, don't fake the action if it makes you uncomfortable. At the same time, if you have pre-ordained deal-breakers based upon physical, accept that he may as well.
doinaheckuvanutjob
Monsanto stole my micro-bio & put in GMO's
06:06 PM on 05/25/2009
All I have to say is:

TMI
05:55 PM on 05/25/2009
Let me know how it works out (contact info here: [http://dailyrevolution.net/?page_id=2] ; I'm a little curious myself, having been celibate for almost 9 years now, and for the same reason.
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Dolphinfan65
The Revolution is happening NOW!!
12:04 PM on 05/25/2009
We don't need movies to tell us sex, is bad after forty, it's not!!! When i was younger, in my twenty's I dated about 4 women in there 40s, the sex was excellent!!!. the women were confident, about who there were, and not worried about there age or what they enjoyed about sex.
Women live in a different world then most men, and with different rules!!! the love sex, they just have to go about it differently then most men.
07:49 AM on 05/25/2009
Oh lord, brings back memories of my own re-entrance into the dating world after 25 yrs. I purposely accepted a date with a guy that I knew I'd never want to be with longterm for my first. Just the thought of kissing someone other than the man I'd been kissing for a quarter of a century filled me with terror. I chose to date a guy I knew I'd never marry for my first intimate post divorce experience. I didn't want Mr. Right, just Mr. Right Now. There was no real pressure there. If he didn't find me attractive enough, or a good sexual match, no big deal.
The second one was more a guy I really wanted to marry. It was a couple of months later that he broke up with me. I was devastated for about 15 hrs. At that point, I just got over it. I figured if he didn't still see the vision that we'd shared, that was HIS loss.
Later that week I met a really great man. I took it VERY slow, since he was only 3 months widowed. He really had to wait for the sex, because I didn't intend to jump right into intimacy with a guy who was still in mourning. It's been 5 yrs., 3 1/2 yrs. married. I must have really done my work after that divorce, because we have a great marriage.
04:03 AM on 05/25/2009
This article was supposed to remind me of Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give, the ultra-classy movie about elderly people finding each other. I am in my twenties and hope that I find someone in this decade of life that I stick to for the rest of my life, so that I am not hanging out on Craigslist trying to date strangers when I am OVER THE HILL! This is kind of disturbing. I am for people finding each other in their youth and staying married, unless of course, someone passes away untimely.
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joelaf
My micro bio is half full.
06:43 AM on 05/25/2009
denise,

Good comment, good attitude. "I am for ... describes my situation perfectly. 23 years of marriage, follwed by almost 2 years now as a widower.
10:15 AM on 05/25/2009
Thanks for replying. Sorry to hear about that.
11:29 PM on 05/24/2009
Vicki, you are beyond fabulous! You're hilarious, down to earth, real, gorgeous, inspiring and a wonderfully gifted writer. As for the sex with a stranger bit - - he won't really be a stranger after you get naked together! As a recently divorced mother-over-40, I have discovered that sex now is better than anything I've ever done for myself EVER! And who cares if his face is melting off (still crying with laughter over that one - - it's so true!), just half close your eyes and wallow in how damn good it feels!! I've had more orgasms since my divorce than I had in my whole 20 year marriage - - it's just damn fantastic. I know one thing as an absolute: women love men who love women, and men love women who love sex. Find yourself a guy who loves women (easy, you can tell in five minutes), then let him know you want to be treated to a well deserved romp - - yowsa! And the best part for the guy is that you aren't going to lie in bed afterward and ask him what he's thinking, because you won't give a sh** what he thinks! Enjoy, good girlfriend, you deserve it!
06:51 PM on 05/24/2009
Thank God for Bob (battery operated boyfriend)? All I want at my age is a guy with hair, and no wife.
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forty8r
Gerrman Freethinker
03:50 PM on 05/24/2009
As Grocho Marx once said, " A man is as young as the woman he feels". For your cougars out their this is the 21st century go girl go.
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forty8r
Gerrman Freethinker
03:47 PM on 05/24/2009
Hey Hef is still going strong past 80. The only limitation is your atttitude and maybe pocketbook.
12:53 PM on 05/24/2009
I haven't had sex in years, well over six. Stranger, lover or friend; have something. Nothing makes life a struggle barely worth living. Like starving in a supermarket.

As far as the worn, melting effects of living in Earth's gravity for an extended period of time, get over it. A 50 year old woman is more then twice as sexy as a 25 year old woman, regardless of size or external decorations. Real women have the elegance of curves, least the tyranny of corners. Truly mature men don't just want steak just to get the bones. There is nothing worse then looking a 25 year old in the eyes and seeing the back of her head.
11:26 AM on 05/24/2009
Vicky,

Your Girlfriend's Guide to Preganancy got me through my first two. Your humor and insight will serve you well in this new chapter in your life. I send you my best thoughts and prayers!