What is "gerontophilia"

n. Sexual attraction toward the elderly.

Gerontophilia is the sexual preference for the elderly. A person with such a sexual preference is a gerontophile. The word gerontophilia was coined in 1901 by Richard von Krafft-Ebing. It derives from Greek: geron, meaning "old man or woman" and philie, meaning "love". Gerontophilia is classified as a paraphilia, but is not mentioned in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or International Classification of Diseases.

The prevalence of gerontophilia is unknown. A study of pornographic search terms on a peer-to-peer network reported that 0.15% had gerontophilic themes. Sex offenders with elderly victims do not necessarily have gerontophilia. There are other possible motivations for these offenses, such as rage or sadism, that may not involve a sexual preference for the elderly. There are no studies showing that most such offenders are gerontophiles. In one small study, two of six sex offenders against the elderly evinced gerontophilic tendencies. Gerontophilia can also be expressed with consenting elderly partners in a legal context.

Research on gerontophilia is limited to a small number of case studies, beginning with a paper by French physician Charles Féré in 1905. Féré described a 27-year-old man who rejected an arranged marriage with a 20-year-old "beauty" in favor of a 62-year-old woman. Such studies commonly report that the subject had an early sexual experience with a much older woman.

Gerontophilia is a 2013 Canadian romantic comedy film directed by Bruce LaBruce and written by LaBruce and Daniel Allen Cox. It was screened in the Vanguard section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

Described as a gay Harold and Maude, the film follows Lake, a young man who takes a job in a nursing home and develops a romantic and sexual attraction to Mr. Peabody, a senior citizen resident in the facility. Unlike most of LaBruce's earlier films, Gerontophilia is not sexually explicit; instead, LaBruce chose to adapt his traditional themes of sexual taboo into a film more palatable to a mainstream audience.