[user104658]

I find the ending a little depressing!

"Do you carry on chasing women 20 years younger and assume they will be thrilled? Or do you look in a mirror and think: you know what, I’m past my peak. I think I’ll start looking at women my own age."

What is she saying here? She sort of is confirming that she also believes that women past a certain age are some sort of "second prize" that a "second prize" male should be willing to settle for. What a miserable and shallow thought .

I mean, I'm hardly "old" - I'm only 32 - and also happily married and my wife is 30. But if the worst did happen and I was ever single again, I can say quite confidently that it's VERY unlikely that I would have any interest in women under 30? And I get slightly uncomfortable when other guys my age are perving on girls who are say 18 - 21... all I can see is basically a child .

But yeah to go back to my original point, I'm finding myself feeling really bad for the woman who wrote this article, that she thinks that anyone who is interested in women over (she seems to be saying) about 35 must be "settling" for something less than ideal. That doing so is "living in the real world" and not "the dream". That's really bleak and if she believes it I don't think she can be very happy or have very good self esteem? If she thinks that every man who shows interest is really thinking "Well, I'd rather have a younger girl, but I'll make do with this one because I'm past it too".

The fact is, with very few exceptions, the majority of people are going to have most in common with people who are "around" the same sort of age, or at least of the same generation. If I *was* to find myself on a dating profile right now... I'd be looking at the age range 28 - 40 tbh. And as I'm 32, that range is from 4 years younger than me to 8 years older than me, so actually skewed towards older .