'gen z is particularly weird about age gaps' are we though? 🤨

talking a bit about age gap relationships
in-depth commentary videos at @DAngeloWallace

[katrinakeith]

When I was a teen and men in their twenties would be interested in my friends and me, my mother would warn us, "there's something wrong with them if they can't find a woman their own age and they have to chase teenagers around."

[Vivikuchan]

It's not lost on me that the older generations who think every marginalized group are groomers seem to put their blinders up when straight grooming is happening.

[alexandrajay]

i work in a pub and it's wild how quickly men will forget a woman is present and listening if she's working, so i hear a lot of unfiltered misogynistic shit. but the one time a guy brought up that he, a 27 year old, was dating a 17 year old, i was happy to hear all his similarly aged friends and the older men listening in actually say something. they mocked him, which i find very effective on these cases, shame sadly works better than reason. they told him he was a creep who clearly just couldn't get women his own age to like him, and he tried to defend himself by arguing that the age of consent here is 16 but was rightly told that the limit is so low so that teens can explore with EACH OTHER, and he even said "she's really mature, she can drive!" to which he was roundly mocked and reminded that any 17 year old can drive if they pass their test. it restored a little bit of my faith in those men that they didn't let it slide and held him accountable. that dude is still a POS, but nobody drinks with him anymore.

[scifi.ginger]

"Why are Gen Z so sensitive to age gaps?"
Because Gen Z is currently most at risk to these kind of predatory relationships and they have the power to talk about it?? Its always been messed up

[GraceA.Nussbaum]

I’m only 19 and a lady tried to get me to date her 40 year old son. I looked at her in the eyes and told her he is old enough to be my dad. She got offended and doesn’t talk to me anymore. I feel so good after standing up for myself.😂

[Thedarkestblackisstillblue]

Notice how these people never befriend people as young as those who they date? Maybe because they understand that their age difference creates a massive inequality in maturity

[AshleyMaklin]

the attitude of this article is so "recently rejected middle aged man" coded

[artifalse]

woman here. when someone warns you of the ulterior motives of a creep, theyre not "telling you what to do, " they are just looking out for women.

[no.reply_]

With the fathers of most teen pregnancies being much older men, I'm happy that young girls and women are being extremely cautious. Who cares if older people get turned away from relationships no one owes you anything

[whimrocker]

I’m in an age gap relationship, but we were 37 and 49 when we met. You’re not being weird, y’all are right.

[mmem]

The age gap isn't the problem, it's the age they were when they got together plus the age gap. At least in my opinion! This article does seem odd.

[dorianh]

I was groomed and heavily abused by a man who was 31 when I was 16. He made me lie about my age around his family and friends (cuz he clearly knew it was wrong) and would be a completely different behind closed doors and genuinely broke me down emotionally and mentally. That situation ended in me getting pregnant. I am now 31 with a 13 year old which was the age I first started getting groomed by someone else who was 40 at the time. I cannot explain how much I have had to heal from coming out of that. The Internet really was a predator's playground and I am so so so glad young adults and kids are now becoming more aware of how dangerous these situations are. My child knows that grown ass people trying to chat her up is wrong. I didn't at her age. She knows that there is a power imbalance and that she needs to allow me to protect her from these things while I am teaching her how to protect herself. I didn't have that insight when I was her age and it's been a point of pride to be able to protect her in a way I was never protected. I love this trend of holding these grown adults abusing children accountable. Good for you Gen Z!

[KittyMeow]

That HuffPost article has some serious "my +30-years-old ass is seriously considering dating an 18-to-21-years-old and I really need to justify it to myself" vibes.

[thelexicon]

It’s the lack of nuance trying to imply a lack of nuance for me.

Their target audience consists of ragebait enthusiasts, uncritical thinkers, and AI bots, I fear.

When I was 16 I dated a 26 year-old who kept telling me that I was “so much more mature than he is” and constantly acted like a whiny child to underscore his point.
✅ Grooming

My independent, self-sufficient 33yo mom met my independent, self-sufficient 43yo dad and they got married and had me and they’re still happily together 20 years later.
❌ Not grooming

My former 34yo married teacher tried to hook up with my 17yo classmate in HS.
✅ Turbo grooming

Your middle-aged windowed neighbor of 55 who met a fellow 45yo window at Zumba and they host a little brunch every Sunday in their yard if it isn’t raining?
✨ Wholesome as fuck, hopefully

[BirdParsons]

THEORY: Leo DiCaprio doesn’t break up with women when they turn 25; THEY break up with HIM when they hit 25 when they reach the final stage of cognitive development 😅

[jessicamattes]

It's so wild to me how the writer of this article said with their whole chest, "Gen Z has grown up watching people talk about how age gap relationships and relationships with huge power imbalances negatively impacted them. So why is Gen Z so critical of age gap and power imbalance relationships?"

[queenbey]

As a former 19 year old who dated a 30 year old, you're right, he was unhinged... and jealous, controlling, and insecure. It was the most stressful relationship of my life. Don't do it ladies. Leave those weirdos alone.

[Grace-erep]

I think the reason Gen z cares about this so much is because so many of us were groomed online. Chatrooms, Minecraft servers, Roblox, Kik, Whisper, Whatsapp I know people who all had similar experiences. It started at 15 for me when I first had my own phone that could connect to the Internet and my mom genuinely could not have known how bad it was until I told her in my 20s after being hospitalized because the depression and anxiety and PTSD had won out. Normalizing large age gaps in my family was one of the ways I excused the behavior, because my grandma is a cougar and my mom had only ever showed romantic affection towards men older than her (my dad is 10 years older). I'm genuinely glad that Gen Z cares about this because I hope it means we can better protect our kids someday. Having an age gap relationship isn't inherently problematic but personally I always approach people who are into that with an additional degree of caution because of my experience.

[kayleighsmh]

my parents are nine years apart, but they met when my mom was 27 and my dad was 36. they were both well established in their respective fields. what annoys me about the framing of this article is the fact that it assumes that gen z are unable to think critically. as a gen z, whenever i hear about an 18 yo dating a person in their mid-20s/30s, i don’t think ‘GASP that’s illegal’. i think ‘what could you possibly have in common with them?’. you’re not in even REMOTELY similar life stages for it to even be considered normal. it’s usually the older person who is more mature and established, whereas it’s the younger person who is still trying to figure out who they are. so sure, these relationships might not be illegal, but they are still predatory by nature.

[AnisiaCanRead]

When I was 15 my mom told me “If a guy older than you is hitting on you or your friends, it’s because women his age don’t want him and he had to go lower.” And GIRL, that stuck with me and saved me time and time again. 😭😂