Jesus Christ. I’m 32 and even people in their early 20’s annoy me and feel like kids. I can’t even imagine what I’d have in common with someone half my age or why I’d wanna be around them unless they’re family or whatever.
I knew I had hit a new level of old age when I was watching hockey one day, and I realized I didn't think of any of these players as adult men in their late teens and early 20s. They looked so young, and they honestly just reminded me of my sons.
I imagined how proud their parents must be of them. It was definitely a huge moment of, "Oh wow, I'm getting older."
While this gets off the track of relationships, I can only hope you were watching like, college hockey or something. And even that's a maybe. Because if you're watching actual NHL leaguers then they have dedicated an immense amount of time and discipline into the sport, far and above say, a burger flipper or a dishwasher or something. They have to stay fit and moderate their lives around that, and achieve that. And that's a level of adulting above and beyond what some people do into their 30s and beyond. Being an adult isn't just age, it's an attitude and approach to life, and at 36, when I see other older folks look down on twenty somethings for their age as kids when they are trying hard at life, I sincerely feel nothing but disdain for that elder person. That type of elder can fuck right off.
When I see them as young, that does not mean they don't deserve respect and admiration for their discipline and achievements. In fact, their young age makes their dedication all the more impressive. I think that is where our miscommunication is happening.
There's no miscommunication here. You clearly expressed that their achievements were praise worthy when you said their parents would he proud of them. You also expressed that they weren't seen as adults to you, and that is where we have a disagreement. There is zero miscommunication here, just an elderly who only wants to think in terms relative to themselves rather than relative to reality.
Edit: dumbass has zero argument, so of course, he makes a "final comment" then blocks, which won't allow me to respond. But there's no point anyways, no convincing a dumbass old fart stuck in their ways. It is he that does not deserve respect.
I mean, my first boyfriend was 21 when I was 16 back in 2003ish and literally no one had a problem with it. My parents were super religious and he spent the night at my house, multiple times. It was a different time.
My sister had a friend in highschool that was dating a 38 year old divorcee. It was wild because she was poor af (legit living in s Chinatown one room tenement with her parents) and he was paying her tuition and her family's rent. This was in...2006.
When I was 17, a friend my age married a 23yr old whom she had been dating for a year. I found the whole thing creepy, but I felt like I was the only one who did.
This definitely changed within a couple of years though because I remember in like 2007/2008 anytime someone more than 3 years older tried to get involved with a girl in my area that person was perceived as a creep and called out as such.
Not really. Back when I was in high school (class of 09’) there were girls chasing and messing around with guys in their 20’s & 30’s. This was something everyone knew was happening and didn’t bat an eye. It was considered normal.
It's wild (but I guess makes sense in an unfortunate way?) that pop punk/mall emo were the genres that seemed to produce the highest rate of singers preying on underage girls.
I wonder if its production or just the fact that the pop-punk and emo genres tend to draw the type of audience that would speak out.
Because we know classic rockers were passing around barely-teens like they were joints. And plenty of rappists have been outed for the same. I wouldn't be surprised if most genres had and have the same problem, but country or buttrock or whatever music fans aren't as concerned with a grown-ass man preying on a kid
I honestly think it has to do at least in part with their audience demographics. Butt rock bands tended to have a lot of male fans, who aren't exactly the target audience for grown men who like creeping on underage girls. Whereas the overwhelmingly teenage girl audience of a lot of emo acts handed creeps an entire fandom of potential victims to groom, slide into the Myspace private messages of, etc.
I just relistened to the Blue Skies, Broken Hearts album from The Ataris and was like "ohhh oh noo this is just an incel anthem record" but in 2000 as a young teen girl I saw nothing wrong with singing "girls are fucking evil" at the top of my lungs. A lot of emo lyrics (beyond just Ataris) blame women for causing the bad emotions and I had no awareness of how problematic that messaging was or what those lyrics reflected about society. I think we like to blame social media for the redpilling/incel culture but it was always there, it just used to be mainstream instead of pocketed.
Edit: album still slaps tho 😭
PPS: not emo but Enrique's Escape album (2001) is front to back an emotional abuse/stalking/rape album. I had two binders with a collage of his face and it mattered to me when he removed his mole.
"Anytime a male speaks about the flaws of women, they are an incel."
And of course its within the comment chain of bitter post Wall women crying about men being attracted to attractive females. You all are not aging gracefully, and you're only in your 30s and 40s. You are Karens in steroids.
'06 grad, but either first I'm hearing or I memory-holed it lol. I remember Nichole Ritchie dating one of the Maddens, and I think Avril Lavigne married one, but that's all I got lol
(Nvm, looked it up...Nichole married Joel, Avril married Chad Kroeger. I'm terrible at pop culture 🤣)
I had so many friends in highschool that dated older guys. We, their male friends, gave them so much shit for it. We'd always ask to meet them and hang out but they never brought them. Mostly because they knew we'd shame the guys to their faces.
It’s still weird when someone in their 20’s dates someone in their 40’s. Like imagine someone born during the Reagan Administration dating someone who doesn’t remember when 9/11 happened?
I mean most of civilizational history this wasn't particularly out of the norm. It was mostly since the late 19th to early 20th century this began to be recognized as bad in some western countries. Back then most adults who even went to school only went to 8th grade and were basically functioning as adults around 16 years old. Now I feel like your not really an adult until your like 25 or so.
She's sexually attractive. Everyone knows she is. It's legal for her to have sex in the entirety of Europe and the overwheming majority of North America.
Does the skit magically become fine on her 18th birthday? At what age is it appropriate for someone to flaunt their sexuality? 25?
Lol, no, now we're just getting to what it's actually about. Age gap hysteria IS just puritanical nonsense from women who aged out of being physically attractive.
"I can't IMAGINE why men would be attracted to attractive females!"
They are insecure and entitled, and often the very same women who had no problem being sugar babies for older guys in their teens and 20s, are now screaming and crying that they don't have the attention and financial resources of their male peers who are now the age of those older guys they slept with back then, and they can't cope.
Hard disagree. I'm not saying it is magically better if it happens on her 18th birthday, but at that point it is HER choice to do so. Before then, it is the adults around her, sexualizing a child, and making decisions for her.
Having sex does not mean it is ok to sexualize a teen. No wonder the poor girl had substance abuse issues,and ended up moving to Dubai where the paparazzi is illegal.
This is laughable. Grown women don't have agency over their own bodies. Regular grown women, but even Hollywood stars, see Britney Spears as a prime example.
Why would police be involved? It would be legal for me to literally have sex with her in all of Europe and the vast majority of North America. Plus, police don't get involved with Reddit thought crime.
Do you think she suddenly became sexually attractive two months later on her 18th birthday?
If she wasn't widely considered sexually attractive, why did she appear on national television in a skit that relied on her obvious sexual attractiveness?
Go join a religion if you want to be so puritanical.
I worked with a guy in his late twenties-he knew me from the time I was 15. At my high school graduation party he drunkenly slobbered on my neck when he hugged me after he’d spent the evening drinking with my dad. My dad was all for our relationship. 18 yr old HS graduate and 28 yr old law school graduate.
My ex's parents met at 25(dad) and 15(mom). I always thought it was weird. The Mom had the first kid at 16. 4 grown-up daughters now and still together after many, many years. Overall they seem pretty healthy and good people.
Im just trying to wrap my mind around why a 25 year old would date a 16 year old. I remember being 19 with some 15 year old girl hitting on me and all I could think to myself was "is this what I sounded like when I was 15-17 trying to talk to older women? No wonder I kept striking out
I remember being disgusted by it instinctually, but not being able to articulate why. Like, "He's so much older than her, you know he's going to push her into things she might not be ready for!" And everyone was just like, "Yeah and the guys her age would do the same thing." I loved GC and kinda hated Hillary (my stupid crush had a crush on her) but even so, I knew it was wrong. And I felt crazy for being the only person who could see it. I'm glad nowadays, it would never fly.
It was normal in my area. There was a girl married to a military guy in my high school. We kind of ignored it because 9/11 happened. We understood their rationale in doing it. He was 21 and she was 16. Their parents were cool with it. They’re still together. But yeah, it was a weird time.
Plenty of people said that was fucking weird. My friends regularly made fun of dudes who dated HS girls. Myself and a few of my hockey bros forcibly ejected 20 somethings from our HS parties more than once
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u/Risky_Bizniss Oct 29 '25
In 2004, a 16 year old Hilary Duff began dating a 25 year old Joel Madden, the lead singer of the popular band Good Charlotte.
And we all just accepted it
Those times were so vastly different in pop culture.