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Notes -
I actually have a theory to explain this: It very much reminds me of the stereotypical ultra-conservative religious preacher who is constantly condemning homosexuality. Which is of course consistent with his religion, but he does it so frequently and so emphatically that it makes you wonder what's going on. In that situation, it's reasonable to (strongly) suspect that this individual has homosexual impulses, and is perhaps even full-on gay, and that he vocally condemns homosexuality as a way of fighting his own (perceived) demons.
In the same way, I think that there is a small percentage of young women -- maybe 5-10% -- who are attracted to older men in the sense that the man's age is not just a matter of indifference to her but rather it makes him more attractive. On top of that, I think there is a much larger percentage - perhaps 75-80% who are not specifically attracted to older men but are somewhat indifferent to age, and therefore they occasionally feel attracted to older men who are otherwise desirable to them. At the same time, at least online, most of these women are aware that AGRs are socially disapproved of, so perhaps they complain loudly as a way of compensating for these feelings of attraction.
All that being said, I realize that this is kind of a just-so story and I don't want to add too many epicycles to the model. The mate-guarding argument is intriguing, but it does seem to be contradicted, at least to an extent, by the phenomenon of young women vocally objecting to AGRs.
It is a good just so story because it's so easily observed when you look at some women's revealed preferences. Take written erotica/smut fiction for example. The male hottie is a 5000 year old white haired vampire/demon/sky daddy. It's all just variations on daddy issues where the fantasy excuse for dialing up the age of the male character to infinity is paper thin.
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