Hope Springs is an entertaining and heartwarming movie about an older couple named Kay and Arnold. Kay and Arnold have been married for thirty-one years; they raised children together, bought a house together, and shared their adult lives with each other. Although the beginning of their marriage was filled with passion and intimacy, all that remains is their commitment to each other. Kay convinces Arnold to go on a couple’s intensive therapy retreat because she is no longer satisfied with their relationship and wants to save their marriage. The movie Hope Springs portrays many aspects of personal development and romantic relationships in later adulthood.
Stereotypes
Positive and negative stereotypes surround the older community despite their …show more content…
The therapist assigns them their first exercise which is to spend a period of time with their arms around each other. This is a simple task which most couples do regularly and enjoy doing, but Arnold questions the importance of the exercise and calls is “forced intimacy”. Arnold gets extremely angry and acts as if he doesn’t want to touch his own wife. It is clear that Kay and Arnolds relationship is suffering because of their severe lack of both passion and intimacy. Kay and Arnold finally decide to do the exercise the therapist suggested and they get into bed together. Arnold asks if just lying next to each other is enough, but then they put their arms around each other and seem very uncomfortable. When they wake up in the morning Arnold’s arms are still around Kay, and Arnold was in a cheerful mood at therapy that day. This was an extremely positive milestone in their journey to regain their …show more content…
However, people’s sexual interests and desires do not disappear. A 75-year-old woman will most likely still be as interested in sex as she was when she was 25 (Hillier and Borrow, 2015, p.192). Sexuality is an important factor in romantic relationships; sexual satisfaction and the ability to be open about sex is extremely beneficial for a healthy relationship. Kay was hoping that by putting on makeup and doing her hair before bed Arnold would want to sleep with her, but he doesn’t seem interested in sex. This upsets Kay because she is still very much attracted to her husband and interested in sex, but she feels as though he isn’t attracted or interested in her anymore. Society no longer view her as a sexual being, and her husband doesn’t either. Sexual invisibility is extremely common; society acknowledges young adults as being sexual beings, but disregards that older adults are just as sexual, and enjoy sex just as much (Hiller and Borrow, 2015, p. 197). After an upsetting therapy session, Kay goes into a bar and talks to the bartender about how she isn’t having sex anymore. The bar tender then and asks how many other people at the bar are not having sex and multiple people raise their hands. People don’t have sex for multiple reasons; sometimes they don’t have a partner to engage in sexual activity with
Stereotypes
Positive and negative stereotypes surround the older community despite their …show more content…
The therapist assigns them their first exercise which is to spend a period of time with their arms around each other. This is a simple task which most couples do regularly and enjoy doing, but Arnold questions the importance of the exercise and calls is “forced intimacy”. Arnold gets extremely angry and acts as if he doesn’t want to touch his own wife. It is clear that Kay and Arnolds relationship is suffering because of their severe lack of both passion and intimacy. Kay and Arnold finally decide to do the exercise the therapist suggested and they get into bed together. Arnold asks if just lying next to each other is enough, but then they put their arms around each other and seem very uncomfortable. When they wake up in the morning Arnold’s arms are still around Kay, and Arnold was in a cheerful mood at therapy that day. This was an extremely positive milestone in their journey to regain their …show more content…
However, people’s sexual interests and desires do not disappear. A 75-year-old woman will most likely still be as interested in sex as she was when she was 25 (Hillier and Borrow, 2015, p.192). Sexuality is an important factor in romantic relationships; sexual satisfaction and the ability to be open about sex is extremely beneficial for a healthy relationship. Kay was hoping that by putting on makeup and doing her hair before bed Arnold would want to sleep with her, but he doesn’t seem interested in sex. This upsets Kay because she is still very much attracted to her husband and interested in sex, but she feels as though he isn’t attracted or interested in her anymore. Society no longer view her as a sexual being, and her husband doesn’t either. Sexual invisibility is extremely common; society acknowledges young adults as being sexual beings, but disregards that older adults are just as sexual, and enjoy sex just as much (Hiller and Borrow, 2015, p. 197). After an upsetting therapy session, Kay goes into a bar and talks to the bartender about how she isn’t having sex anymore. The bar tender then and asks how many other people at the bar are not having sex and multiple people raise their hands. People don’t have sex for multiple reasons; sometimes they don’t have a partner to engage in sexual activity with