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Address for correspondence: Mineko Wada, STAR Institute, Simon Fraser University, #2800–515 West Hastings St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 5K3, Canada E-mail: [email protected]
Introduction
Contrary to deeply entrenched stereotypes (Byers 1983; González 2007), most older adults express an interest in romance and remain sexually active and satisfied well into old age (Brown and Lin 2012; DeLamater 2012; Katz and Marshall 2003; Thomas, Hess and Thurston 2015; Wu and Schimmele 2007). At the same time, older adults’ sexuality is increasingly being positioned as essential to ageing successfully (Gott 2005; Katz 2001, 2013). Biomedical advancement has resulted in the medicalisation of sexuality (e.g. pathologising and ‘fixing’ it). As the stereotype of the post-sexual or non-sexual older adult is eclipsed by the ‘sexy oldie’ (Gott 2005: 34), sexuality has become an important way for older adults to present themselves as being in the Third Age of youthful vitality, rather than in the Fourth Age of debilitation and dependence (Bayer 2005; Calasanti and King 2005; Gilleard and Higgs 2000; Katz and Marshall 2003).
Like their younger counterparts, older adults are increasingly turning to the internet as a means of meeting and dating potential partners with whom they can establish romantic and sexual relationships (Smith and Duggan 2013). While the bulk of online dating research has investigated the experiences or self-presentations of adults at a young age or in a wide age range (e.g. 18−96, <60 or ⩾40) (e.g. Alterovitz and Mendelsohn 2013; Whitty 2008), little research has focused exclusively on older adults (Alterovitz and Mendelsohn 2009; Frohlick and Migliardi 2011; McWilliams and Barrett 2014; Whitty 2008). In addition, scant research has investigated racial/ethnic differences in older adults’ engagement in online dating. To understand how older adults participate in online dating, it is important to take into account how their presentation of self in their online profiles differs when broken down by age, gender and culture. In this paper, we examine how older adults present themselves in online dating profiles, paying particular attention to how their use of language reflects and reinforces idealised images of ageing and gender.
Online dating: gender, age and the presentation of self
On the presentation of self, Goffman (1959: 15) commented that ‘when an individual appears before others he will have many motives for...