OPINION: Age is just a number and other comfortable lies we keep telling ourselves

A younger man with an older woman was treated as either a curiosity or a cautionary tale (Photo: iStock)

There was a time when society had very clear, if unspoken, rules about age and romance. A young woman dating an older man was considered normal, even sensible; stability, after all, was presumed to come with years. Reverse the equation, however, and eyebrows would arch so high they risked permanent displacement. A younger man with an older woman was treated as either a curiosity or a cautionary tale.

Yet even within this double standard, there were limits. A certain kind of age gap, one that edged into the territory of father and daughter, remained beyond the pale. People might tolerate it, but rarely would they accept it without question. It was a line that, however blurred, still existed.