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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   6964 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

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I propose a different explanation. If we take a broad look at the age-gap relations where the woman is above the age of majority and the man is older than her, we can see that they are not universally bad (unlike, say, forty-year-old men raping ten-year-old girls). However, there's a specific subtype of this relationship that, while definitely not illegal and not universally immoral, still isn't something that improves the overall quality of truth and love and beauty in the universe.

I'm talking, of course, about a relationship with an expiry date. An older man uses his greater access to material resources or his greater relationship experience to have sex with a young attractive woman and then breaks up with her. Just a few decades ago this wasn't a problem: the young woman's parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents would all immediately see through this man's nefarious plan and forbid the problematic relationship. If the suitor had noble intentions, he would have to prove himself to them.

However, it's $current_year, and this kind of direct personal interference in a woman's private life is now taboo. She's an adult, and no one can tell her who to date and who not to date. On the other hand, she's no longer protected from this form of exploitative relationship. How do you square the circle? You transform personal interference into impersonal. Instead of specific women being told, "no, you cannot date this man", all men are now told, "any of you that dares to date a 18yo is definitely a disgusting predator".

There's an unspoken carve-out for men with noble intentions, just like there's one for attractive men in "don't hit on women in bars/gyms/etc", but it doesn't work well, given the amount of heat this topic generates.

I agree that there may be an element of this in play, but consider a situation where a young woman who is dating a man who is roughly her age but also is a "player" or "f*ck-boy" type (or gives those vibes off). Applying your historical view of things, in the past the young woman's family would have arguably identified such a man as a "cad" or a "rake," and forbade the relationship.

Nowadays, there is some degree of impersonal social disapproval of "player" types, but it's nowhere near the ferocious hostility displayed towards older men who are in age-gap relationships. So I have to think that there's more in play.

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