Western Courier

Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Opinion

Skylar Patridge/cartoonist

Imagine if you will a typical scene: boy meets girl (or boy meets boy or girl meets girl), they hit it off and over time decide to become an item. Through the course of discovering the history of one another, aside from favorite colors, weird birthmarks and crazy relatives, they find there is a significant age gap between them.

It's a common enough occurrence, especially in a college environment, and for some people it can be a deal breaker. However, when it comes to sex and romance between consenting adults, does age really matter?

At times it seems our society has come to regard May-December relationships as more thrilling and adventurous than those of couples with birth dates in the same three to five year span. There's an expectation of a kind of education with an older partner, of crossing sexual boundaries into a completely new experience.

However, at the same time, these "playboys" and "cougars" are being called out as cradle robbers and perverts, speculation as to the reason for the pairing running amok. Is the attraction that they are young and na've, or remind them of their youth, or something even darker? After all, what could a 40-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man (or vice versa) have in common?

The fact of the matter is that attraction and desire go beyond the simple aspect of age, just as with race, sex, religion and any of the superficial qualifiers that we place upon ourselves. It's not a matter of deviance or an overpowering sexual magnetism, or in the case of Hugh Hefner, a reputation and a bottomless bank account. Rather it's a matter of seeing something in someone else that you can't do without, just as in any other relationship.

Keep an open mind when you're out there on the prowl, Western, and don't let others dictate your limits. After all, you all know what it feels like to get carded for access.

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