Honestly I've unironically missed the entirety of the image at first, I went directly to the text. And probably a lot of internet-savvy people would, this kind of image is useless decoration 90% of the time and people are trained to not look at it. Same concept as in that research where they asked people to find the current population number on a webpage and they had a very hard time, despite the value being in big red digits or something equally distinctive.
You act like they have to pull it up with a number ID and don't already have every xkcd alphabetically, pneumonically and categorically sorted in their bookmarks.
It's a horse riding addage, a horse ridden hard gets dirty and messy, put away wet means it doesn't get cleaned. Basically a dirty worn old looking horse.
Good advice from 1901. Especially the bit about not marrying women older, taller, or wealthier than you. Especially all 3. Even if she's like 1 day older, 1 inch taller, or $1 wealthier than you. You gotta man up and not tie that knot!
Actually, a good advice in general though. Not many marriages last when the woman is considerably wealthier or older. Not sure about taller, I've seen a lot of successfull exceptions.
Legally, yes. You can't and shouldn't prevent them from dating.
But, it's still creepy, it's usually still predatory, and there can be a huge power imbalance. Basically, the main thing is whether either person can easily leave at any time - often the younger one can't.
How is that any different than 18 year olds getting an apartment together and being too broke to easily move out if needed? And there are plenty of older people in the same boat financially. In fact most people live paycheck to paycheck.
I guess what you really mean is that poor people should only date other poor people, to make it a fair power balance. /s
I don't know man. If at 50 I ran into a 20 something that was into dating me, I'd feel more like prey than a predator. But, who am I kidding? If the roles were reversed and I was a 20 something encountering a 50+ cougar, I'd still feel like prey. It's definitely all about power dynamics, but I don't think making assumptions about adult people's situations based on age alone is appropriate or helpful.
Nope. If your age minimum for a partner y is determined by your age x with the function:
y = 1/2 x + 7
then the point where y = x is at y - 7 = 1/2 x. Setting y to x leads us to x - 7 = x / 2, which happens at x = 14.
At x = 18, y = 18/2 + 7 = 9 + 7 = 16.
Relatedly, if we invert the function, y - 7 = 1/2 x, thus 2y - 14 = x, which gives us the theoretical maximum for a possible partner. If a possible partner is older than that, you'd be understood to call them a cougar, or whatever the male equivalent is.
It's a case by case thing. Admittedly I'm defending myself here as I'm 41 dating 25 and I will never assume to be a good person or doing the right thing but am at least trying. Basically minding and respecting the gap but allowing the fact we fell in love to go ahead and happen.
Both guys (idk, I heard age gaps are more common with gays anyway?)
He was the one to approach me and ask me out, I'd thought about it but was reluctant to, turned out he got there first
I check regularly that he's happy and remind him of where the difference will be in 9 years for example
It's an open relationship, largely for his benefit and freedom (of course I get some fun too) and heck we're not actually all that sexual between ourselves
I'm not in any rush to pin him down, and often say he's free to do what he wants, enjoy the 20s fully and decide for himself if he wants a future with me or not. If one day he finds someone closer in terms of age or distance and wants to let me go, of course I'll be heartbroken but love and want the best for him so would respect the decision - hopefully ultimately remaining friends and lives made richer than when we started.
To be honest, whilst I know it's not a good thing, I'm a late bloomer, so in various ways kind of like the same age but sadly in an older body
I'm not gonna be like "oh I'm a good person so it's fine", I don't know that. I might be an asshole. I can only try, based on things like the above, hopefully without being labelled something nasty.
(Who am I defending against anyway? Probably my own conscience.)
They started high-school just after Columbine, they were trying to get through high-school when 9/11 happened, they were trying to start their careers when the GFC came along, and they were trying to get married when COVID hit. Late-80s babies can’t catch a break.