Thread: Age gap Taboo, have the attitudes reversed?

I think that any age gap relationship is suspect in the eyes of society. People cannot believe that people who are 15, 20 or 30 years apart could genuinely love each other and establish a family. I suppose that the "predator" label is applied depending on the age of the younger partner. Being 18 is not necessarily equivalent to being mature enough to have a relationship based on equality. On the other hand being 40 or 60 is no guarantee of maturity either. At one point one has to say to heck with what society accepts and just be happy.

Though there has been a slight relaxing of society, it is still an orientation/choice that is not given a lot of support.
And it still leans favor towards older men with younger women being a free pass (as long the female is not teen) as opposed to the poor guy with old bag *sigh.

One just has to clinch the teeth and present their jaw. The heck with the unwritten rules, long as we are not hurting anyone else, our affections are our business!
My family with a mild eruption of teasing at first was much more accepting and calmed quicker than his.

Originally Posted by Pickles

Though there has been a slight relaxing of society, it is still an orientation/choice that is not given a lot of support.
And it still leans favor towards older men with younger women being a free pass (as long the female is not teen) as opposed to the poor guy with old bag *sigh.

One just has to clinch the teeth and present their jaw. The heck with the unwritten rules, long as we are not hurting anyone else, our affections are our business!
My family with a mild eruption of teasing at first was much more accepting and calmed quicker than his.

You really think the older man still gets a pass? I think male sexuality is being shamed in general and that an older man with a younger woman would be seen as predatory.

I think age gaps do tend to "gross" people out though.

Society is odd that way, at least in most western cultures. I would say attitudes towards age gaps (OM/YW) changed within the last fifty years as it used to be very common throughout most of history for older men to marry younger women especially since lifespans used to be much shorter and most younger men weren't financially stable enough to start families. I feel the obsession with youth started the frowning upon of age gaps especially as people tended to put off marriage into their 30s and 40s. I love being married to my hubby and the age gap, it just clicks. Honestly, who cares as long are both adults, love, care, and respect each other? I find it silly to judge a relationship "doomed" based upon age, but a lot of people who judge that based it on s*x anyway, which is superficial to a real, lasing relationship.

Originally Posted by Sweetie28

Society is odd that way, at least in most western cultures. I would say attitudes towards age gaps (OM/YW) changed within the last fifty years as it used to be very common throughout most of history for older men to marry younger women especially since lifespans used to be much shorter and most younger men weren't financially stable enough to start families. I feel the obsession with youth started the frowning upon of age gaps especially as people tended to put off marriage into their 30s and 40s. I love being married to my hubby and the age gap, it just clicks. Honestly, who cares as long are both adults, love, care, and respect each other? I find it silly to judge a relationship "doomed" based upon age, but a lot of people who judge that based it on s*x anyway, which is superficial to a real, lasing relationship.

Despite what society may think, I believe we are more prudish in many ways now than we used to be.

There is also this emphasis on fairness or so society believes now and some people have this idea that if one person is much older they have some kind of an advantage or that the younger person is being robbed of something.