Patrick Stewart’s wife was less than half his age and I didn’t hear many people who had a problem with that. I think it has to do with how people view the character of the man in the relationship, as you said if it’s a pattern or in Billy’s case people just don’t like him.
Comment on True love
Aeder@lemmy.world 3 days ago
While I agree it’s creepy if you specifically only go after women who are way younger, I feel the way this kind of discourse talks about these types of relationships essentially says “Women have no agency and no power to resist being with a man twice their age”.
It feels like a lot of attacks on weird men’s behaviour are actually just misogynistic underneath, in a “it’s the duty of the man to do everything right because women are just dumb children incapable of taking decisions” kind of way.
Biffsbraincell@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
SethTaylor@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Patrick’s wife was in her 40s when they met. That’s why people weren’t bothered.
TrackShovel@lemmy.today 3 days ago
It feels like a lot of attacks on weird men’s behaviour are actually just misogynistic underneath
that’s actually a pretty fair point. Society tends to think of women as having less agency than men; that they’re delicate flowers, or country bumpkins getting the wool pulled over their eyes by men.
No.
A lot of them enter these situations with their eyes wide open, and its our collective small minds that can’t handle that truth, so we reinvent a different narrative.
Good catch, honestly.
liuther9@lemmy.world 2 days ago
“Taking advantage of less experienced, younger, which is equivalent to dumber for some reason.” It is not misogynistic.
stickyprimer@lemmy.world 2 days ago
So… not misogynist, just infantilizing. Got it.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 days ago
also very groomish too.
LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
USUALLY the same thing happens when women date much younger men.
It’s about power, not about gender. People with a lot of experience and resources prey on people who have very little.
If someone is 60 and dating someone who is 30, that’s usually ok (a little weird in my opinion tho) cause someone who is 30 is fairly mature and can understand what’s going on, and usually has friends, a career, and a lot of stability in their lives.
If someone is 40 and dating someone that’s 20… it doesn’t matter what the gender mix is… the 20 year old is going to have a lot of trouble pushing back when things are wrong. The 20 year old isn’t emotionally, or FINANCIALLY able to break away as easily. It’s not misogynistic to say that a very young person (female or male) might end up in a situation they feel like they can’t leave.
Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
I don’t agree that the younger have zero agency. Their youth is worth quite a bit. They can leave, find somone else, start over. Youth targets age almost as much as age targets youth. One side usually has more wealth, social standing and the other has more vitality. Both parties often find it is to their own personal benefit. To get rid of all the power imbalances that could happen in relationships, we’d have to have everyone date their equal in intelligence, wealth, social standing, occupation, looks or someone would always have the possibility to have the upper hand. Maybe what’s needed is giving children (under 18s) the knowledge to be able to push back against wrong situations. I used to feel it was age that was the predator but I know quite a few people in recent years, male and female, who have been targeted for relationships with younger people simply because they are perceived to have more financial means.