When it comes to opinions regarding age gaps between men and women, most people tend to fall into one of three categories:
- Date someone your age or near your age
- Date whoever you want as long as you’re of equal maturity and you get along
- Date whoever you want as long as they’re legal and consenting
But just because she is now legal and can consent, is it moral for a 30+ year old man to date her? For clarity, I chose 30 as a benchmark age. I’m not sure where the exact cutoff should be for the man in this equation.
Someone recently commented on one of my essays: “You can increase the consenting age to 30 and older men will date those women as soon as they turn that age. Let me guess… they’re groomers as well?”
Only one thing wrong with that argument. A woman of thirty has for more life experience as an adult and in relationships, cannot be as easily manipulated, may generally be more willing to stand up for herself, and usually are not in a phase of trying to find themselves and are past trying to please.
Now let’s reverse it; if the legal age of consent was changed to 12, should grown men start dating 12 year old girls? I sure as hell hope you all say no. That’s because it’s a moral…
