Just caught an ad. for a new movie, “Autumn in New York”. Will someone tell me why it’s ok for a 50ish male to date a 20something female but not the other way around. This is not a rant but a true General Question.MTS
Why is it OK for an older man to date a younger woman? That depends on who you ask. From an older man’s perspective, younger women are obviously desirable, (and older men are the one’s making such films) and so from their viewpoint it is ok. From a younger woman’s perspective, if the older man brings something worthwhile to the table, such as power, wealth or experience, it is beneficial to the younger woman as well. The younger woman also may figure she can always get a male her own age as well. From a young man’s perspective, they obviously don’t like competition for desireable young females from old coots. From an older woman’s prespective, they don’t like competition for older men with wealth, experience and power from desirable young females.
Speaking as a no longer young man, personally I’m all in favor of the older men-younger woman scenario.
I like older women. 
I don’t think it really matters, and i believe it’s frowned upon by society either way if there’s a 30 year difference, though personally, i see nothing wrong with it if that’s what the couple wants.
Young women are smarter than young men. Young women recognize the benefits of an older man’s experience.
Older men are dumber than older women. Older men lose sight
of the benefits of an older woman’s experience.
First sign of dying brain cells in an older man is when he starts looking around for younger women.
It’s about more than the meeting of age, experience, wealth and power and nubile youthful glow - sometimes people just click and can’t help it despite their ages. Men or women.
The practice of marrying off young women to older established men is a very old one, and it’s still alive in many cultures. Men can father children well into old age. Maybe that’s where the cultural acceptability comes from - older men/younger women makes reproductive sense in a way that younger man/older woman does not. Younger man/older woman may make GREAT sexual sense, however - something a little more taboo in our culture.
I dated a younger man last year (I’m 43, he was 29). No thanks, not again. He was sweet, but I felt more like his auntie than his girlfriend.
Maybe the fact that he worked for a Hip-Hop magazine had something to do with that . . . Can you see ME trying to be all Def and Phat? I am just NOt da bomb, I’m afraid.
I think magdalene got it right- since an older man/young lady are viable reproductively, it’s somewhat hard-wired in our brains to think it’s ok. Note that I said SOMEWHAT- it’s not a universal thing, just a tendancy towards acceptance. That type of match might be very good for both parties reproductively, since the man gets a young, healthy woman (presumably more likely to be fertile and of child-bearing age), and the woman gets a potential father for her kids who is already established with known financial resources, etc.
Of course in actual practice all these factors may not be taken into account, but I think that overall it helped shape whatever inborn tendancy there is.
Just my WAG, though.
Arjuna34