> >age, though. Went to an academic party last year that consisted almost
> >entirely of middle=aged male profs and their young sweeties. It was like
> >a father-daughter convention.
>
> This stuff doesn't bother me. If young women go for older men and
> vice-versa, who cares? The problem is the asymmetries in wealth and power
> between individuals which make one person more dependent on/vulnerable to
> the other, usually the woman.
>
> If we could eliminate class, innumerable social problems would be solved
> virtually overnight.
>
> Brett
Of course it doesn't bother you, Brett. you're a man! The thing is, it DOESN'T go vice versa -- young women and older men like each other fine, but younger men don't go for older women, and after a certain age, most men don't even want to date women their own age. It has to do with the whole structure of sex and gender, much deeper than money and class. Although that's certainly part of it: May-December was a more popular marriage form in last century, I believe ("her beauty was sold/for an old man's gold" as the song put it) and in macho Latin America older men and much younger women is a very prevalent combo.
I can imagine circumstances under which young women would find older men unappealing . But can you imagine circumstances under which 25 year old men would want to marry fifty year old women?
Katha