Issues dating older man
New French President Emmanuel Macron, 39, has a wife, Brigitte, who is 24 years his senior, while supermodel Heidi Klum, 43, has been dating art dealer Vito Schnabel, 30, for more than three years.
Actress Gabrielle Union, 44, and her husband, Chicago Bulls player Dwyane Wade, 35, are often lauded as a power couple. “Older successful men are used to being in control of a woman, and that doesn’t sit well with modern women,” says Susan Winter, co-author of the book “Older Women, Younger Men: New Options for Love and Romance.” “Younger men have grown up with working women and have worked for female bosses, so they’re more likely to treat women equally.” Some in these relationships agree.
“When you’re an ambitious woman, it’s very difficult — you either have to subsume what you wanna do for somebody else, or live with the struggle to fight your partner on top of business survival, and it’s a very unhealthy relationship,” says Nicole Wipp, a 45-year-old attorney and entrepreneur, who found a perfect match in her husband, Marcus Sutherland, a 33-year-old paramedic.
“Dating somebody younger than myself, there’s an acceptance of ambitious women — it’s more normalized.” They met at the University of Hawaii in November 2002, when she was a law student and he was a sophomore undergraduate.
“[Younger men] don’t have the weight of the world [on their shoulders] yet.” But initially, Wipp held off on dating Sutherland because she was wary of the numbers on his driver’s license. I really had a mental struggle dating someone younger than me,” she says.
“I love that she loves me so much, and that I mean a lot to her,” says Sutherland.
“I can tell because she always makes me feel wanted.” Alan Angal, 36, was attracted to his older fiancée, Jennifer Siegner, 45, for her stability.
In some cases, society is fairly accepting, like when hot and established older celebrities like John Stamos or Harrison Ford date women ten to twenty years younger (or even more).
In other instances, society’s reaction may be hostility, like when a fat old guy gets caught checking out a college girl, or when a “dirty old man” hits on a girl old enough to be his daughter (or even granddaughter).
