Transcending the Age Gap in Relationships (Part 1 of 2)
You spot an attractive man from across the room and suddenly your eyes meet. This locking of eyes lasts for just a few seconds longer than a gaze that just means "hello." He winks at you and offers up a swanky grin. You know that grin. It means, "I'm available."
A few moments later he comes over and after you get a closer look you realize, that you are 45 and this is the oldest looking 25 year old male you have ever seen in your life!
What are those bad names that society calls older women that date younger men again? Cougars! Cradle-robbers! Gulp, even child-molester!
Still the part of you that believes in equality is outraged at the double-standard society holds against May/December romances. Surely if HE were the older one in this budding attraction, there would not be any problem at all. He would just be behaving like Donald Trump, Michael Douglas and a variety of celebrities and politicians who have much younger wives.
For centuries it has been more acceptable for an older man to date a younger woman, but not the other way around. In fact, marrying younger woman or at the very least seems very acceptable if not a goal of older man. Look at Woody Allen. Why are men allowed to act out their Lolita complexes while women walk around with an expiry date for romance on their forehead?
Then other more proactive Hollywood stereotypes come to mind. There are older women out there trying to set an example that reverses this trend. There is Demi Moore and Ashton Kuschter, Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, and of course, Mary Tyler Moore and her optometrist husband who boast a 20 year age difference. These relationships are a sign that it may no longer be in bad taste or taboo for women to bridge the age gap by dating a younger man.
May/December romances that feature a woman as the older partner are inevitably on the rise. Women have taken a no holds barred approach to dating and refuse to settle for the "I'm so desperate, I will just take what I can get!" They're going after what they want-- a young virile man with plenty of tetesterone. It is a matter of live and let live. Rather than sit at home and mourn their fate as crone while their ex-husbands find some sweet young, some women are definitely taking steps to change this situation. After all it is futile to try and change long-held male attitude such as "after forty women are sexually obsolete."
If love is supposed to be an ageless, timeless thing, than an age difference should not matter particularly if the eyes that you seem to be locking with seem to be those of a soulmate. Some believe that May/December romances are ultimately doomed, simply because sooner or later, generational differences will cause them to go their separate ways.
Whether you are male or female... [Continued: Age Gap 2]