Men are attracted to fit, young females. Maybe because women in the past tended to pick not the youngest but the most powerful (in this particular social circle?). Thus humans learned that both parties are ok with age difference.
It seems a bit gross, a 70yo with a 25yo girl. It happens less often now (a wild guess), so maybe social pressure helps a little bit. But i believe that men still prefer fitness over education in women. Not 100% of the time, not in edge cases, but in general. Even in the press, a guy is more often smart, funny, successful and a girl is beautiful, elegant, and so on. Not always, but more often than not.
Until they open their mouths. Seriously. I have seen 10/10 bodies lose all advantage in one sentence. I have seen ugly women that after a few minutes talking with I would spend the night with without problem.
You fantasize about perfect bodies until you get to fuck one. Then you realize sensuality is something else altogether.
And once you reach 35, you realize how sexy it is for a girl to be financially independent...
You present this as though it supports your point, that you "cannot cheat biology with feminism". To me it's actually more evidence that there is this complicated system running, with multiple feedback loops on multiple levels.
I'm not saying that there is nothing here in terms of biology, of course there is, but the relationship between biology and culture is subtle and complicated. Little in life (maybe nothing) is as pure and simple as many people seem think this issue is.
I really doubt any self respecting 30 year old woman with a great job is going to find, say, a highschool jock attractive. The appearance of being with someone like that does not do her brand any favors in her social context. She's out of his league.
This is probably a little (a lot) reductionist but it provides a pretty satisfying explanation, at least to me.
Human beings are nasty machines.
young women want emotional "stability" in seduction/romantic relationships, and young men, lacking experience by definition won't display this, causing more questions and worries, thus going for older men.
I'd like to add, that with people who are of same age, you share being from the same generation. You got similar jingles in your head from commercials and the jokes connect, you heard similar pop music at the age of 16 as well as the age of 5 and 25, you might've seen similar TV series (esp so if your interests align), you experienced your first phone with T9 (whereas a younger person never experienced T9), etc. In short, your reference points are more aligned.
What this also means, generally speaking, is that a younger person is less experienced (not necessarily less intelligent) while an older person is more experienced (not necessarily more intelligent). Wisdom however, comes from experience.
Add to that, that women grow slightly quicker to adolescence and you have a plausible explanation why women seek (slightly) older men but not deviating much so that you speak of different generations.
I'm in my mid-30s and I'd be hard pressed to move more than 5 years in either direction (younger or older).
Then why don't young women prefer older men, who are more likely than men of their age to be more distinguished and accomplished?
Maybe women prefer partners they can relate better to. Why is that not less plausible than this unjustified cynicism?
Disclaimer: n=1.
I'm interested in your explanation as to why so many female teachers have sex with their teenage students then.
What is an excellent predictor for what man a woman will date, according to the OKCupid data, is income of the man statistically anchored to the income of the woman. This produce a very similar looking graph to this article, where the older the woman the more income she has and the more income she is looking in a man.
https://theblog.okcupid.com/the-big-lies-people-tell-in-onli...
or if you just want data:
https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*N0OGjZ9WDff4gOrf.p...
I can get attracted to a wide range of physical appearances (including age) if the person is empathic and/or intelligent. However, I never get attracted to someone who lacks those attributes, no matter how physically attractive they might be. In fact I find the combination of being physically attractive but cold and or dumb even a bit repulsive.
If I were to point out women that I find physically attractive solely from a set of pictures, they'd probably skew to the younger side.
But in reality, the important aspects of a life mate for me go way, way, way beyond just being attractive physically. That 23 year old on OKC might spur a momentary sexual fantasy, but never in my right mind would I truly want to date someone of that age.
In other words, I picked my mate because I find her very attractive - physically, intellectually, and emotionally. But that doesn't mean younger women aren't attractive in a putely physical sense.
I'm rambling now.
The numbers behind the OKCupid graph are likely based on physical attractiveness. The conclusion to draw is that men are more likely to find women of a certain age physically attractive.
As you say there are other factors based on which men choose life partners... If it were not so, every single man whether 20 or 99 would be hanging out around college campuses trying to 'pick up chicks'.
PS: Ben Franklin's advice. Older chicks whom are in-shape are animal, bad bitches in the sack.
Apparently, that phrase actually dates back to at least 1550 -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/all_cats_are_grey_in_the_dark
Which suddenly has me curious on the history of advice on how to get "bad bitches" -- is there some grand human tradition I've failed to learn the major milestones of?
(Like fart jokes which are ~4k years old or advertisements which are ~6k years old.)
I don't think the anti-aging research push is driven by fear of oblivion- we've found so many outlets for that already. It's about sexiness. It would be nice if the first blockbuster rejuvenation pill added years of life expectancy, but its sales will be driven almost entirely by how good it makes you look.
https://web.archive.org/web/20101006104124/http://blog.okcup...
Older women (even ones with children) can be just as beautiful as younger ones. Not with an attitude like that, though.
The phrase "Like lipstick o na pig" might be rude, but it didn't come from nowhere.
> Sign a pledge with me here today. Not of celibacy (where’s the fun in that?), but let’s end this scourge once and for all by committing to contemporaries.
> If I could prolong my time as a young adult by, say, 2.3 years, here is a list of things I would like to do:
[...]
• Have more romantic partners. Preferably ones with abs.
From the NYT comments:
"Yes a big age gap 'matters.' But to whom? And in what way? Can it be managed or ignored?? Yes! I was married at age 48 to a 24 yo from the Philippines. We had two beautiful daughters, twins by IVF (her fertility issue, not mine). Then she killed herself (bipolar issues and the local meth) when we moved to the Philippines. So now I have a 30yo gf: A reasonably tall and Truly Beautiful woman. We have been together 4+ years. and I am 73."
