A 30-year-old woman is an undertaking, and it’s the real reason why Alex has been putting me on the backburner for the last two months, telling me I’m amazing and that he’s interested and then disappearing to hang out with a 23-year-old instead. Age ain’t nothing but a number, until it’s a number someone else doesn’t want to deal with.
via 30 Is the New 50: “Old Age” is Killing My Dating Life | xoJane.
Apologies to Pink Floyd for my post title. If you young’uns don’t recognize the reference, go look it up.
Okay, so I’m also mixing metaphors. This is an article about another 30+ woman being spurned by an older guy for a woman in her 20s. The amazing thing about this particular story is that she is only 30. And a former model. Usually the wall is hit later in a woman’s 30s. I’m surprised this woman is hitting it so soon. Then again, this is only one guy, she’ll probably have a few more “providers” to latch on to before she hits 40.
Garfunkel and Oates have a great skit on this phenomenon:
But back to our victim, Jenny. It seems her 38 year old short term companion (4 dates), is dropping her for a 23 year old. Why? Because he can. He is hitting his prime and she is well past hers. Check out The Rational Male’s SMV graph:
Perhaps Alex can distinguish between the different life stages of his two flings. He queries Jenny:
Alex: Well, what do you want?Me: I want to love someone and I want them to love me.
who he is dating precisely because she’s not looking for anything at all.
Hmm, who to choose? A woman entering her thirties who is looking for a life partner, or a hot young fuck buddy with no strings attached? Even if Alex was starting to feel the pull of his own clock and was thinking of settling down, the siren call of youthful beauty will prove to him that he still doesn’t need to. Maybe in another decade, when he might find it more difficult to pull the college age set will he reconsider someone Jenny’s age. Of course, this will be too late for Jenny, she will have hit 40.
Perhaps Jenny should focus on the 45+ crowd. While she still can. The problem for her then might be that the 45+ guys are less likely to want kids, or might already have some of their own. Just another statistic in our fertility decline.
The comment section makes the post even more surprising. There is little sympathy for the woman from most of the male commenters. They remind Jenny that she likely ignored men her own age when she was younger (just like she and Anouk are still doing), and now those same men her age are returning the favor. Most of the female commenters are missing this point and spend their time berating and insulting the men. Is it any wonder singlehood is the new normal?
Observe the Decline!