General status of gender relations vs. Quibbles

[Brett Knowlton]

Yoshie wrote:
>>Even in a
>>socialist, egalitarian and non-sexist society, older men might still go out
>>with younger women much more frequently than older women go out with
>>younger men.
>>Brett
>
>What can possibly be the cause of such a pattern in the society you posit?
>It's much more likely that such a gendered behavior will disappear; the
>causes of the existing pattern are sexism + income & wealth inequality
>between men and women, so in a society where neither exists, there is no
>material condition that supports such a pattern.  Further, there won't be
>any matterial support for the predominance of heterosexuality either.  I
>guess when it comes to gender, many men avoid inconvenient materialist
>explanations.

You might be right.  I don't know for sure (and I wonder how you can be so
certain).  But I disagree, because I do think women and men instinctively
look for different things in a mate.  Men equate attractiveness with youth
more readily than women by nature, in my view.  If true, this asymmetry
would lead naturally to more May women and December men. Cultural factors
might be more important, as you say, but I don't find the argument
compelling on this particular issue.

I support any struggle to eliminate institutional sexism and income and
wealth inequality, between everyone.  If this leads to an equal number of
older women dating younger men, so be it.  And I'm not rejecting
materialist explanations, just skeptical as to whether or not they
completely explain the specific phenomenon of older men dating younger women.

kelley wrote:
>if human beings are  free to do as they please then you'd expect just as
>many older women/younger men couples as men/women couple no?  the existence
>of stats suggesting a disproprotionate number of the latter is an indicator
>of gender inequality

I disagree (but reserve the right to be proven wrong).  See above.

In any case, I'm sorry for some of the stuff I wrote that came off in a
taunting tone.  I should know better, and I want to apologize for it.

Brett