Age Differential

[while1]

Scenario A:  A 25 y/o man is dating a 20 y/o woman.

Scenario B:  A 35 y/o man is dating a 30 y/o woman.

Society is pretty messed up in that it is less socially acceptable for scenario A to occur than scenario B, at least from my perception of how society views it.  Doesn't make sense to me.

Don't even get me started on how society somehow deems older woman dating a younger man as socially taboo.  Times are changing but as of now things like this seem more like a novelty than widespread social acceptance.

[Towelie]

20 yo man with 15 yo girl is even worse. Age difference seems to become less important as you get older

[Sidoh]

Yeah, I see each of the situations you presented as perfectly acceptable under expected conditions.  I mean it might be creepy for a meth-head pipeliner to date a college student, but I think that's pretty independent of their ages.

The ratio is also important.  5/20 > 5/30.

I do think it'd be more creepy for a 25 year old man to date a 17 year old girl than a 25 year old woman to date an 17 year old boy, but they're both pretty creepy.

[MyndFyre]

[warz]

Scenario A:  A 25 y/o man is dating a 20 y/o woman.

Scenario B:  A 35 y/o man is dating a 30 y/o woman.

Society is pretty messed up in that it is less socially acceptable for scenario A to occur than scenario B, at least from my perception of how society views it.  Doesn't make sense to me.

Don't even get me started on how society somehow deems older woman dating a younger man as socially taboo.  Times are changing but as of now things like this seem more like a novelty than widespread social acceptance.

Sorry, but if you think 25 dating 20 is messed up then you're fucking weird. Now, 20 dating 15 is weird. But, 25 dating 20 is perfectly fine. If both parties are in college or graduated from it, then it doesn't matter.

[Joe]

A friend of mine's parents are 55 and 45. That's not weird to me.

warz, I go to college with some people who are retired and pursuing degrees for fun. That criteria isn't quite applicable to my school.

[Newby]

My dad is 48 and my stepmother is definitely a dozen years younger than him minimum. She's barely into her thirties if I remember correctly.

(My dad is a whiz with women, my brother is a whiz with women... and I just flat out suck with women. What the hell!)

[Rule]

It isn't just the 5 years that matters, it's the relative difference too.  25 dating 20 is not that strange.  But the relative difference is a lot bigger than say, 65 dating 60.  A 25 year old dating a 20 year old is somewhere between a 75 year old dating a 60 year old, and a 65 year old dating a 60 year old.

[iago]

I think any social taboos about who dates who are retarded. Age, gender, race, etc -- who cares? I'm fine with older/younger, homosexual, mixed race, even polygamy -- I don't see how any of it hurts me, and if it makes the people happy, that's great!

[Rule]

I think any social taboos about who dates who are retarded. Age, gender, race, etc -- who cares? I'm fine with older/younger, homosexual, mixed race, even polygamy -- I don't see how any of it hurts me, and if it makes the people happy, that's great!

There are reasonable limits.  For example, a 30 year old dating a 10 year old is almost certainly a situation where the older person is unfairly taking advantage of the younger one.

[while1]

I think any social taboos about who dates who are retarded. Age, gender, race, etc -- who cares? I'm fine with older/younger, homosexual, mixed race, even polygamy -- I don't see how any of it hurts me, and if it makes the people happy, that's great!

There are reasonable limits.  For example, a 30 year old dating a 10 year old is almost certainly a situation where the older person is unfairly taking advantage of the younger one.

Yeah, besides extremes like that of course.  But other than that I agree completely with iago.

[rabbit]

It's not that uncommon though.  Even look at Hollywood.  Mena Suvari is 20-something and Michael Douglass is about 980.

[iago]

I think any social taboos about who dates who are retarded. Age, gender, race, etc -- who cares? I'm fine with older/younger, homosexual, mixed race, even polygamy -- I don't see how any of it hurts me, and if it makes the people happy, that's great!

There are reasonable limits.  For example, a 30 year old dating a 10 year old is almost certainly a situation where the older person is unfairly taking advantage of the younger one.

Yeah, I forgot that caveat: as long as nobody is being taken advantage of. I *stop* agreeing when somebody is being taken advantage of, or when money/power/abuse/etc are involved.

[truste1]

I think the bigger question is why was this topic created? Has while1 experienced some resistance while pursuing the younger women?

[Joe]

It's not that uncommon though.  Even look at Hollywood.

This instantly causes the statement to carry zero meaning.

[Ender]

Scenario A:  A 25 y/o man is dating a 20 y/o woman.

Scenario B:  A 35 y/o man is dating a 30 y/o woman.

Society is pretty messed up in that it is less socially acceptable for scenario A to occur than scenario B, at least from my perception of how society views it.  Doesn't make sense to me.

Don't even get me started on how society somehow deems older woman dating a younger man as socially taboo.  Times are changing but as of now things like this seem more like a novelty than widespread social acceptance.

Both A and B are fine. However, a 20 year old dating a 15 year old is not. A five year difference means different things at different ages.

[iago]

On this topic, I watched a (weird) movie last night called L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway). It's about an old pedophile grooming a kid, basically. The scary part is, the pedophile is legitimately a really nice guy (who happens to enjoy giving blowjobs to young boys). Really good movie.

[while1]

On this topic, I watched a (weird) movie last night called L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway). It's about an old pedophile grooming a kid, basically. The scary part is, the pedophile is legitimately a really nice guy (who happens to enjoy giving blowjobs to young boys). Really good movie.

WTF.

Sounds like a Roman Polanski kind of movie, kek.

[truste1]

Went out for drinks with my ex girlfriend last night. Her boyfriend (who she's living with) is a tad older (like 6 years), recently divorced, etc. It's a little weird, not going to lie.

[Joe]

I was thinking about this today and came up with a few scenarios:

Can a freshman in college (18) date a senior in college? (22)
Can a freshman in high school (14) date a senior in high school? (18)
Can an 8th grader (13) date a junior in high school? (17)

I'd say definitely, iffy, and absolutely not. The difference in the last two bother me.

[deadly7]

It isn't just the 5 years that matters, it's the relative difference too.  25 dating 20 is not that strange.  But the relative difference is a lot bigger than say, 65 dating 60.  A 25 year old dating a 20 year old is somewhere between a 75 year old dating a 60 year old, and a 65 year old dating a 60 year old.

Beyond the relative difference, I would say it's more of a "where you are in your life" issue. As a 25 year old, you are most likely [unless you are in academia] settled into a career (be it by being in professional school or by being in the industry). As a 20 year old you are still trying to "find yourself": you don't necessarily have a career settled on, you haven't fully socially developed, etc. Hence I think it's "weird" for a 25 year old to date a 20 year old, but I wouldn't freak out if it happened. It's less of an issue with a 30/25 yr old, etc etc. Obviously this all goes down the drain when legalities are broken or children are abused, etc.

[warz]

I was thinking about this today and came up with a few scenarios:

Can a freshman in college (18) date a senior in college? (22)
Can a freshman in high school (14) date a senior in high school? (18)
Can an 8th grader (13) date a junior in high school? (17)

I'd say definitely, iffy, and absolutely not. The difference in the last two bother me.

The first one is definitely. Anything 18+ is acceptable. The larger the gap after 18+ just becomes kind of like "wow, the older person must be really rich." The second one is kind of like ... I don't know. It wouldn't have even happened in my high school. I know we would jokingly make fun of guys who dated girls even in the grade below us, as seniors. Granted, we had a lot of really good looking girls in our grade. I don't think I can not recall a single instance where a guy dated a freshman girl, in high school.

The last one is just ... no.

[dark_drake]

My high school was a little weird. When I was a sophomore, all of the girls in my class were dating seniors. When our senior year rolled around, almost all the guys agreed that the girls in our class were total bitches for doing that. So, the guys asked the juniors and sophomores out, and the senior girls went to prom alone or with their girlfriends. Thus, the cycle continued.

[Lance]

I think any social taboos about who dates who are retarded. Age, gender, race, etc -- who cares? I'm fine with older/younger, homosexual, mixed race, even polygamy -- I don't see how any of it hurts me, and if it makes the people happy, that's great!

Yes!