"Getting to the beach by bus": autoethnographic interpretations of structured interviews with older people on intimate life

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the perception of sexuality by the elderly. The key question that we are trying to answer is: are there any talks about intimate experience with the elderly. This article focused on the perception of sexuality by the elderly, and how appropriate it is to talk with the older generation about their first intimate experience. How are such conversations possible via a telephone interview? The empirical data was drawn from the archive of recorded telephone surveys on aging practices in modern Russian families. These surveys were conducted by Laboratory for Social Research Methodology (RANEPA, Moscow) in July 2017. For the analysis, we selected 26 total audio recordings; 14 from women and 12 from men. The motivation behind the article was the identity of intimate life and marriage of the respondents. Regarding the question of their first intimate experience, they reported the age of entering into an official marriage. They also reported than intimate relations ended due to the death or illness of a spouse. Does this mean that our respondents do not think of an intimate life outside marriage? Or is it an attempt to disguise the topic because it is unacceptable for public discourse? Is there any reason to assert the differences in values between people raised in the Soviet Union and young people that have come of age in a new social context? We should not reach for a single answer, and none of us gave up on our original interpretation. But in this strictly subjective reading of the respondent's answers, the features of the autoethnographic approach are manifested. The task of the article is not to form an explanation, but a discussion.