Learning from Caroline Flack: Should older women date younger men?
There's been a complete uproar today because TV woman Caroline Flack is rumoured to be dating pop foetus Harry Styles. She's 32, he's 17.
Flack is being labelled a 'cradle snatcher', which raises the question: how young is too young for a woman to date?
[Relevant: Shoulder older men date much younger women]
Of course, this is barely an issue when the genders are reversed. No one bats an eyelid when a famous older man cavorts with 17-year-old girl (unless you're the Prime Minister in a place like Italy, where the age of consent is 18 rather than 16).
It's long been established that older guys like younger girls and vice versa. If Harry and Caroline are of the opposite persuasion, I can't see why anyone in their right mind would care.
Except, I do care.
Speaking as a man whose teenage years are a distant memory, I'm concerned at the precedent this sets.
For chaps, the saving grace of getting older is that you can still pull girls younger than you. This is because girls don't like dating dudes who are younger.
I've never quite understood why this is. Twenty-year-old lads are generally healthier and prettier than 30-year-old men, with better hair and higher libidos. Women can cite their "immaturity" and "lack of experience" as reasons to steer clear, but actually I think it's more to do with the weird social stigma attached to it. Guys who date younger girls get kudos for it, while a woman dating a young lad is deemed somehow misguided and pathetic.
And for men in their late twenties and older, this is great news. Our maturity is the one thing we have in our locker - a safety net for ageing bachelors. Otherwise, we'd be like women - when no one wants you when you're old. Imagine!
But if this alleged Flack-Styles courtship is successful, the repercussions are frightening. Presumably they are quite high profile so they could become a popular, fashionable couple (I say presumably, I'd never heard of Harry until this morning but am assured he is well-known.) If it suddenly becomes acceptable for a 29-year-old woman to snog an under-25, guys like me would be sunk.
[See also: The 10 people you shouldn't ask out]
It's hard enough as it is finding a woman without teenagers becoming serious contenders for the same girls. It's like Roger Federer against Novak Djokovic - the young pretender might end up being better than you.
So for my sake, although I think love between any aged couple is a beautiful thing, I want Caroline and Harry's romance to fail horribly.
She needs to dump him, then give an interview a few months confirming all the suspicions of older women: that Harry wanted them to spend all their spare time playing with Lego.
We don't want women getting the wrong idea - that young dudes are just as good as old ones.
When 'treating 'em mean, keeping them keen' goes wrong
Quit playing games with my heart
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