Why

[Aisling]

It surely is a reflection of our legacy, male-dominated society. An artifact of the past, one which has no value in today's world.

I beg to differ on the artifact aspect and lack of value. As one poster commented, there are evolutionary and biological reasons that are most likely still innate in us which cause men and women to value age differences.

For me, it was purely a preference. I don't want to be dominated by a man, but I am attracted to the romanticism of the older, stronger Prince Charming saves-the-princess type of man. It's not a need for a man to take care of me, but a delightful thought that he can.

That said, I don't believe age matters in the art of love, companionship and partnership. It only matters to me, and I love it that I can be free to be me instead of being a militant against so-called artifacts of the past.

 

[castmemberb4]

DH is 6 years younger than me
We've been married for 18 wonderful years

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

DH is 7 years OLDER than me. I refused to date any immature boys back then. Not worth my time.

 

[bicker]

It surely is a reflection of our legacy, male-dominated society. An artifact of the past, one which has no value in today's world.

I beg to differ on the artifact aspect and lack of value. As one poster commented, there are evolutionary and biological reasons that are most likely still innate in us which cause men and women to value age differences.

That seems to be an agreement with what I said, rather than differing.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

It is an evolutionary hold-over, not a reflection of a male dominated society. Men retain their fertility longer, and as such, it is not as important for them to initiate a pair bond as quickly as females. Additionally, in order to ensure themselves a quality female, males have to compete and acquire resources for longer than females, who will all generally get a chance at a mating when young and don't have to work hard to entice a male. You'll see the same pattern across most species (with a few notable examples). The one that sticks out as a good example of this phenomenon to me right now are bower birds. Young males get just about zero matings, males approximately 3 years old get a few (with those who locate themselves next to an experienced older male's territory getting more), while those 10 years and excess in age getting the most matings. Why? Because they spent 10 years learning how to build bowers and impress females. The age of the females? Brink of sexual maturity on up, the boys aren't nearly as picky.

 

[bicker]

It is an evolutionary hold-over, not a reflection of a male dominated society.

Okay, thanks for that clarification (assuming that Aisling agrees with your dichotomy); I understand it better now. So you see it as kind-of like our appendix. I can see the logic in that, but I see that pointing out that there are two things at work: The biological aspect you and Aisling point out, and the sociological artifact that I pointed out. Clearly, the biological aspect will take generations-upon-generations to filter out of our species. Hopefully, the sociological aspects will be gone by the time the children in our families have children. The reality is that, for many things, sociological aspects can overcome biological imperatives. People generally don't just follow their base, evolutionary instincts. What's necessary therefore is for the sociological aspects (for many things) to reverse, from supporting the base biological instincts, to mitigating them.