Age-Gap Relationships | Rich or Poor

Six Foot Four • Dec 6, 2023

Oh, you wanted a wall of text? Allow me.

Like meow, I think the question starts with a flawed assumption; that an age differential is creepy. As TSG mentioned, what we now define as an ‘age gap’ used to be the norm. Norms evolve over time. I had a friend whose grandmother married at twelve and had kids by fourteen. In the US, the Age of Consent was ten to twelve in most states as late as the 1880s, and in Delaware it was seven. The advent of later Marriageable Ages and Ages of Consent is very much a ‘modern’ thing. It went up to sixteen to eighteen in most US states by the 1920s, where is has mostly remained since. It’s mostly fifteen to twenty-one globally, though the younger ages often require parental consent. Interestingly, according to the US Census Bureau, male-male relationships have the biggest age gaps in modern America, with female-female being second largest and opposite-sex partners having the smallest age gaps.

Age of Majority reached its peak during ancient Roman times when a man couldn’t sign contracts without permission until he was thirty. Thirty! Though that would keep you from doing a lot of stupid stuff when you’re young, I imagine. They later lowered it to twenty-five and then twenty-one, which is now sort-of the standard. Tell me the Age of Majority in the US is eighteen, then try to buy a drink in a civilian bar. *mumbles about Minimum Legal Drinking Age*

Women are the primary practitioners of hypergamy, like Miki’s referenced Anna Nicole Smith. There is some evidence that as women become increasingly educated, that trend might reverse and become hypogamy, but good luck convincing a liberal woman with a PhD to date an oil rig worker with a high school education.

For most of human history, younger women tended to marry older men. There was the dowry to think about, which you needed a certain amount of resources for and takes time to accumulate. I remember reading an evolutionary biology book which stated women preferred men about ten years older than they were. As soon as men discover their sexuality, it stated that they preferred women in their twenties and that never changed. Teenage boy? Woman in her twenties. Thirtysomething man? Woman in her twenties. Sexagenarian? Woman in her twenties.

Records are harder to come by the further back you go, but twelve for girls or fourteen for boys for Marriageable Age was sort of standard, though younger was not uncommon. These days men get married in the US at thirty and women at twenty-eight, but a mere fifty years ago the marriage age was twenty-three for men and twenty-one for women. That’s a seven-year change in a mere fifty years, but the age differential in the US stayed consistent at about two years apart. That’s interesting. Eyeballing South Korea looks like a three-year age gap. Generally, the more Western and advanced an economy, the smaller the age gap, whereas the more primitive or (another criterion I can’t mention) an economy is, the larger the age gap looks to my brief reading of the data. Afghanistan was leading the pack based on what I read with an average age gap of 9.2 years, though as that was in 2015 I’d expect that to rise and data to be unavailable.

In ancient Rome, noblewomen were expected to be virgins when they married, so married earlier than commoners who married later. Generally speaking, once we moved from tribal customs to city-states and beyond, for the upper classes, betrothals and marriages were a way of cementing alliances. Today marriage is increasingly a middle-class and upper-middle-class institution.

I think most people make bad mating & life decisions based on bad criteria. I care way more about a person’s values and beliefs than their age. If we’re giving people the right to vote and be charged as an adult for a crime at (Age of Majority in your jurisdiction), then we have to let them make their own choices about who they date & why. But then as I had an older woman tell me back when I was eighteen: “you’re a very unusual boy.”

Richard Girard • Dec 6, 2023

If they are happy mind your own business

ControlYourHole​(dom male) • Dec 6, 2023

I get your point but just to point out a diff perspective-if the 18-year old girl in question is a little or just wants a Daddy Dom, a guy in his 50s or 60s might be the best match for her. An 18 year old young man might be super Dominant with her but does he have the life experience to truly care for an age-regressing little? I’m sure some can handle it but lots of young guys couldn’t handle that role- I doubt I would have been a good Daddy Dom at 18 (though now at 27 the role comes very naturally).

Secondly imo there’s nothing weird about preferring younger women- men are naturally attracted to highly fertile women (it’s the biological purpose for horniness after all haha), and an 18 y.o is more fertile than a 28 y.o. In most states 16 is current AOC, and up until the 1960s most women were married & having babies by that age at the latest, often younger. Btw I’m not saying I personally pick up high school age girls for kicks lol, just dont believe there’s anything wrong with wanting to teach a girl young. To some guys, nothing is less sexy than knowing that 100+ dicks have been inside your girl before, and so a virgin who’s 18 or 20 is best for them. Now wether a college age girl will be attracted to an older guy is up to her haha- if he’s not in good shape that would be a deal breaker for most I’m sure😂