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The classical explanation for this is that men are attracted to fertility while women are attracted to status. I really doubt any self respecting 30 year old w

The classical explanation for this is that men are attracted to fertility while women are attracted to status. I really doubt any self respecting 30 year old woman with a great job is going to find, say, a highschool jock attractive. The appearance of being with someone like that does not do her brand any favors in her social context. She's out of his league. This is probably a little (a lot) reductionist but it provides a pretty satisfying explanation, at least to me. Human beings are nasty machines.

toomuchtodo 9y ago
> I really doubt any self respecting 30 year old woman with a great job is going to find, say, a highschool jock attractive. I'm interested in your explanation as to why so many female teachers have sex with their teenage students then.
- DanBC 9y ago
  paraphilias exist; you're ttalking about rare events; those women are often in their 20s.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    Teacher student relationships have spiked [1] with a third of the perpetrators being female (up from only 4% a decade ago [2]). A quick glance at the cases showed the female teachers in their 30s, but I'm digging more to get the age distribution from case datasets. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/20/more-teachers-are-having-sex-with-their-students-heres-how-schools-can-stop-them/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/20/... [2] http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/why-are-so-many-female-teachers-sleeping-students http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/why-are-so-many-fema...
    - DanBC 9y ago
      > In 2014 alone, there were 781 reported cases of teachers and other school employees accused or convicted of sexual relationships with students. My firm, Drive West Communications, has been tracking news reports of sexual misconduct by educators for more than a year. Every week has brought news of 15 young people, on average, who were sexually victimized by the educators entrusted with protecting them. That’s an abhorrent rate and a trend that deserves far more attention from school leaders and policy makers. In a country with 73 million children, and roughly 3.2 million full time equivalent teachers. That's pretty much the definition of a rare event. In general, any increase in numbers should be regarded as better reporting and better recording of crime, rather than an increase in that crime. Female teacher on male student sexual crime has only recently been taken seriously (and it's still got some way to go to reach parity in perception with male teacher on female student sexual crime), so I'd expect reporting and recording of this crime to be changing. You've posted two links, but one refers to the other. > In 2014, Abbott said, two-thirds of reported teacher-related sexual misconduct cases with students involved men; that means one-third of the cases involved female teachers. Does it? Or does it mean the sex of the offender isn't always collected? I can't seem to find his data anywhere.
- WallWextra 9y ago
  It is not many. Definitely not "so many."
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    "Quite a few"
    - csallen 9y ago
      You're probably being downvoted because you're coming off as someone who saw a handful of stories in the news and concluded "this happens often" without ever looking at the denominator.
      - toomuchtodo 9y ago
        That's fine, if I cared about downvotes I wouldn't frequent Hacker News. I'm happy to state my opinion, and others are free to judge those comments with up or down votes (or replies). That's how discourse works. I'm just happy to have the chance to participate in discussions with my fellow humans.
danharaj 9y ago
> The classical explanation for this is that men are attracted to fertility while women are attracted to status. Then why don't young women prefer older men, who are more likely than men of their age to be more distinguished and accomplished? Maybe women prefer partners they can relate better to. Why is that not less plausible than this unjustified cynicism?
- throwahey 9y ago
  But they do, far more often I see older men with younger women. Rarely do I see the opposite, at least, as far as long-term relationships go.
- bitwize 9y ago
  Hugh Hefner just died surrounded by women who were at least half a century or so younger than he.
- jlgaddis 9y ago
  When we met and began dating (three years ago), my current girlfriend was 20 and I was 35. Disclaimer: n=1.
moomin 9y ago
It's an explanation, but it's an explanation that raises more questions than it answers. It's hard not to come to the conclusion that our society is suffering from a hangover that's lasted several thousand years.
agumonkey 9y ago
Allow me to throw my own theory: young women want emotional "stability" in seduction/romantic relationships, and young men, lacking experience by definition won't display this, causing more questions and worries, thus going for older men.
- Fnoord 9y ago
  Interesting. I'd like to add, that with people who are of same age, you share being from the same generation. You got similar jingles in your head from commercials and the jokes connect, you heard similar pop music at the age of 16 as well as the age of 5 and 25, you might've seen similar TV series (esp so if your interests align), you experienced your first phone with T9 (whereas a younger person never experienced T9), etc. In short, your reference points are more aligned. What this also means, generally speaking, is that a younger person is less experienced (not necessarily less intelligent) while an older person is more experienced (not necessarily more intelligent). Wisdom however, comes from experience. Add to that, that women grow slightly quicker to adolescence and you have a plausible explanation why women seek (slightly) older men but not deviating much so that you speak of different generations.
MK999 9y ago
isnt it true that women are attracted to power and status and men attracted to beauty?
personlurking 9y ago
Well, they don't specify what "attraction" means here. If older men are attracted to 20-yr old minds, then I'm the Easter bunny. I'm in my mid-30s and I'd be hard pressed to move more than 5 years in either direction (younger or older).

toomuchtodo 9y ago

> I really doubt any self respecting 30 year old woman with a great job is going to find, say, a highschool jock attractive. I'm interested in your explanation as to why so many female teachers have sex with their teenage students then.

DanBC 9y ago
paraphilias exist; you're ttalking about rare events; those women are often in their 20s.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  Teacher student relationships have spiked [1] with a third of the perpetrators being female (up from only 4% a decade ago [2]). A quick glance at the cases showed the female teachers in their 30s, but I'm digging more to get the age distribution from case datasets. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/20/more-teachers-are-having-sex-with-their-students-heres-how-schools-can-stop-them/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/20/... [2] http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/why-are-so-many-female-teachers-sleeping-students http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/why-are-so-many-fema...
  - DanBC 9y ago
    > In 2014 alone, there were 781 reported cases of teachers and other school employees accused or convicted of sexual relationships with students. My firm, Drive West Communications, has been tracking news reports of sexual misconduct by educators for more than a year. Every week has brought news of 15 young people, on average, who were sexually victimized by the educators entrusted with protecting them. That’s an abhorrent rate and a trend that deserves far more attention from school leaders and policy makers. In a country with 73 million children, and roughly 3.2 million full time equivalent teachers. That's pretty much the definition of a rare event. In general, any increase in numbers should be regarded as better reporting and better recording of crime, rather than an increase in that crime. Female teacher on male student sexual crime has only recently been taken seriously (and it's still got some way to go to reach parity in perception with male teacher on female student sexual crime), so I'd expect reporting and recording of this crime to be changing. You've posted two links, but one refers to the other. > In 2014, Abbott said, two-thirds of reported teacher-related sexual misconduct cases with students involved men; that means one-third of the cases involved female teachers. Does it? Or does it mean the sex of the offender isn't always collected? I can't seem to find his data anywhere.
WallWextra 9y ago
It is not many. Definitely not "so many."
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  "Quite a few"
  - csallen 9y ago
    You're probably being downvoted because you're coming off as someone who saw a handful of stories in the news and concluded "this happens often" without ever looking at the denominator.
    - toomuchtodo 9y ago
      That's fine, if I cared about downvotes I wouldn't frequent Hacker News. I'm happy to state my opinion, and others are free to judge those comments with up or down votes (or replies). That's how discourse works. I'm just happy to have the chance to participate in discussions with my fellow humans.

danharaj 9y ago

> The classical explanation for this is that men are attracted to fertility while women are attracted to status. Then why don't young women prefer older men, who are more likely than men of their age to be more distinguished and accomplished? Maybe women prefer partners they can relate better to. Why is that not less plausible than this unjustified cynicism?

throwahey 9y ago
But they do, far more often I see older men with younger women. Rarely do I see the opposite, at least, as far as long-term relationships go.
bitwize 9y ago
Hugh Hefner just died surrounded by women who were at least half a century or so younger than he.
jlgaddis 9y ago
When we met and began dating (three years ago), my current girlfriend was 20 and I was 35. Disclaimer: n=1.

moomin 9y ago

It's an explanation, but it's an explanation that raises more questions than it answers. It's hard not to come to the conclusion that our society is suffering from a hangover that's lasted several thousand years.

agumonkey 9y ago

Allow me to throw my own theory: young women want emotional "stability" in seduction/romantic relationships, and young men, lacking experience by definition won't display this, causing more questions and worries, thus going for older men.

Fnoord 9y ago
Interesting. I'd like to add, that with people who are of same age, you share being from the same generation. You got similar jingles in your head from commercials and the jokes connect, you heard similar pop music at the age of 16 as well as the age of 5 and 25, you might've seen similar TV series (esp so if your interests align), you experienced your first phone with T9 (whereas a younger person never experienced T9), etc. In short, your reference points are more aligned. What this also means, generally speaking, is that a younger person is less experienced (not necessarily less intelligent) while an older person is more experienced (not necessarily more intelligent). Wisdom however, comes from experience. Add to that, that women grow slightly quicker to adolescence and you have a plausible explanation why women seek (slightly) older men but not deviating much so that you speak of different generations.

MK999 9y ago

isnt it true that women are attracted to power and status and men attracted to beauty?

personlurking 9y ago

Well, they don't specify what "attraction" means here. If older men are attracted to 20-yr old minds, then I'm the Easter bunny. I'm in my mid-30s and I'd be hard pressed to move more than 5 years in either direction (younger or older).