What do you think ATRL? Appropriate or not? Trend or not?
Are Intergenerational Gay Couples a New Trend in Dating?
Quote:
When somebody on my team suggested we compile a photo collection of the hottest older/younger celebrity gay couples, my immediate reaction was, "Forget it there aren't enough to make a list."
Boy, was I wrong.
We ended up with pictures of 14 intergenerational celebrity gay couples. There are actually a lot more but we decided to cut the list there. But the list brings up a great question: Why are there so many famous intergenerational gay couples? And is that reflecting changes in the way gay men date? Or is it just that as society grows more tolerant of homosexuality that less well-known aspects of it are surfacing in the media?
There is a great hunger on the part of many gay men to be in stable, loving relationships and this just might be a driving force behind the possible rise in intergenerational couples. For the younger guy, what could be more stable than an older, more mature, more emotionally balanced man? And for the older guy what could be more validating then to know you are desired and treasured by the youth and beauty in your arms?
Of course there are a lot of powerful forces (like ageism) keeping most gay couples in generational parity (more on that later). So how is it that thousands of non-celebrities as well as celebrities like fashion icon Tom Ford, Olympic diver Tom Daley, and movie star Matt Bomer (click here to see pictures of their partners) are coupled in significantly older/younger relationships? How does any intergenerational couple make it in an ageist society?
The answer, it seems to me, has more to do with younger guys than it does with older guys. Older guys, straight or gay, will almost always be more physically and sexually attracted to younger, so they will always be more open to intergenerational coupling than younger guys. There is pretty much a consensus among evolutionary psychologists that men are biologically programmed to be attracted to "healthy" partners (it assures procreation). What are the markers for "healthy"? Youth and beauty.
So what drives younger guys into the arms of the older? Sometimes it is physical - they simply like the look of an older man - but in my intergenerational relationships I've noticed something else at work. The "attraction switches" in younger guys who prefer older guys track closer to heterosexual women's attraction switches. Women have the capacity, far more than men, to attach desire to non-physical, nonsexual characteristics.
It is exceedingly hard for hetero men to be sexually turned on by a woman's sense of humor, kindness or world experience. But for women, sexual desire is strongly attached to those personality characteristics. I find it's the same thing in the younger guys who prefer older guys. Like women, they naturally attach sexual desire to personality characteristics like power, confidence and other traits.
LOL this article is absolutely 100% a steaming pile of cow manure
LOL this article is absolutely 100% a steaming pile of cow manure
Eh, I'm not sure it's that far off, tbh. That's probably why you see hot younger guys/younger women with unattractive older men who have money/power/intelligence, ect...
That's probably why you see hot younger guys/younger women with unattractive older men who have money/power/intelligence, ect...