We overlook it because 40 yr old women, moms, are not seen as a threat. Men are. It's a protective bias.
On the flip, 17 yr old boys don't seem as fragile and innocent as 17 yr old girls. Though, from what I know of teenage boys, are surely just as easily influenced, if not more so.
It is a good point. On the other hand, we don't honestly believe that 40 year old men don't openly fantasize about very young female stars (even teenage ones; I'm thinking of Brittany Spears early days, for instance) without anyone blinking an eye about it. Men have been fantasizing publicly about much younger women for a very, very long time. As much as I agree with the sentiment of this point--that there's something wrong with an adult being so worked up sexually about a teenager (regardless of the genders involved), I'm a bit frustrated with the fact that these women are criticized for something men get away with all the time. Maybe the men don't gather in crowds and scream for the girls as they walk past, but they certainly have their own versions (some of them much more insidious) of publicly fantasizing about inappropriately young women. And we sometimes criticize them. But not as quickly as we tend to criticize women for the behavior. In other words, this critique of these women is a part of the same double standard it attempts to critique.
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We overlook it because 40 yr old women, moms, are not seen as a threat. Men are. It's a protective bias.
On the flip, 17 yr old boys don't seem as fragile and innocent as 17 yr old girls. Though, from what I know of teenage boys, are surely just as easily influenced, if not more so.
It is a good point. On the other hand, we don't honestly believe that 40 year old men don't openly fantasize about very young female stars (even teenage ones; I'm thinking of Brittany Spears early days, for instance) without anyone blinking an eye about it. Men have been fantasizing publicly about much younger women for a very, very long time. As much as I agree with the sentiment of this point--that there's something wrong with an adult being so worked up sexually about a teenager (regardless of the genders involved), I'm a bit frustrated with the fact that these women are criticized for something men get away with all the time. Maybe the men don't gather in crowds and scream for the girls as they walk past, but they certainly have their own versions (some of them much more insidious) of publicly fantasizing about inappropriately young women. And we sometimes criticize them. But not as quickly as we tend to criticize women for the behavior. In other words, this critique of these women is a part of the same double standard it attempts to critique.
I started to leave the comment and realized I have so many feelings about women over 25 that love twilight it's best if I just say:
I like this post.
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