Have You Ever Heard of Gerontophilia?

Gerontophilia is a sexual deviation that triggers a reaction in a young person to desire an old person. This disorder isn’t widely described in professional literature.

Gerontophilia is often associated with sadism, since young men force themselves on old women. (Photoxpress)

Gerontophilia is often compared to sadism

You surely remember the classic film Harold and Maude, where an 80-year old Maude and barely 20-year old Harold fall in love. But that’s just a film, while the truth is different. In real life, gerontophiles are mentally impaired people, aroused by violence in most cases. The media have often reported about a horrible story of a young man that brutally beat and raped an old lady. It’s the connection to sadism that is crucial to a scientific study of gerontophilia. Thus, Freud found that there’s no genuine gerontophilia without a desire for torture. In the film Harold and Maude, this isn’t so obvious, since the old lady definitely likes the fact that young men are still interested in her.

Gerontophilia hasn’t been much discusses by professionals

In his book, Sex Variants, sexologist P. J. Gillette finds that no real example of gerontophilia exists in the whole professional literature. In conclusion he says that professionals probably turned deaf to the matter because the cases are usually linked to crime. The only exception is the book Sexual Perversions and Abnormalities by Clifford Allen, who speaks of the phenomenon, but doesn’t provide any practical examples. Gerontophilia obviously takes place behind closed doors and people don’t want to discuss it because they’re aware that they committed a serious criminal offence. Aging Hollywood divas, who often have young lovers, are something completely different. For instance, legendary Mae West; she had young studs until she was very old and they could be described as gerontophiles. A similar case is the deceased playboy bunny, Anna Nicole Smith, who married an old millionaire. Although it’s a different type of gerontophilia, the relationship, without doubt, also included sexual contact, which makes these cases more logical.

Doctor who had sex with an 80-year old woman

The aforementioned P.J. Gillette, who devoted more attention to gerontophilia than any other expert, found the case of a young and very successful doctor who went completely crazy one night. It’s particularly interesting that the doctor was considered a very eminent and respected professional, who never had any problems with the law. But one night he probably snapped. He put his clothes on, broke into an apartment where an 80-year old woman was residing with her disabled husband a few streets further down. The doctor waited for her stark naked in the hallway, grabbed her neck, banged her head against a wall and brutally raped her while she was unconscious. This is the perfect example of gerontophilia and sadism, as mentioned at the beginning of the article. In any event, gerontophilia is a serious deviation, but to date it hasn’t been studied thoroughly because most cases involve criminals who are arrested by the police and later imprisoned.

Read more about sexual deviations in our Lover's Guide.