More On The Last Frontier…. (To readers: Please read my first essay to catch up to speed)
I’ve heard it said that when a younger man dates an older woman it’s only about money… That statement is a complete generalization. Few would say that if the genders were reversed.
Sometimes that’s true and sometimes it isn’t…and sometimes dating within your age range is as well and sometimes it isn’t.
All generalizations are false, including this one.
What isn’t false is that the only way we’re ever going to win gender equality as women is to make the rules on dating equal on both sides and it’s up to women to do that. Younger women need to stop dating older men until older men accept older women equally and don’t discard us as we age. As long as they do (and are blind to their own arrogant discrimination) it’s up to us -as we age- to either accept dates with younger men or teach older men not to discriminate against us as we age—by teaching younger women (as the first-in-line gatekeepers of equality or discrimination) to stop dating older men until the same type of dating equality for older women, as it is for older men, is the norm.
If younger women keep the gates open, welcoming older men, while older men close the gates to older women, discrimination against older women will stay alive and well and will backfire on younger women as they age. Either the gender tables need to be turned and both genders need to accept older women dating much younger men as perfectly natural, or younger women need to stop the major part they’re playing in this horribly self-defeating situation.
Audrey Biloon
Copyright, 2023
Photo by Nickolas Nikolic on Unsplash
