Why do men desire younger women?

Is there “a seed of evolutionary truth” to the idea that men “naturally” prefer younger women?

Aware that I might be seeing this psychological piece from a biased female point of view, I asked some men of my acquaintance – friends, clients and my partner for their perspective.

What they said . . .

• It’s a complex question, why would men go for younger women. Part of it is biological. The male is hardwired to . . . there’s something instinctual about being attracted to young women. It happens at a deep level. We don’t consciously think about it.

• Generally, we men don’t want to be involved with a woman who has more sexual experience. Some men want to dominate. The man wants to feel he knows more, is more in charge.

• They don’t want their masculinity questioned or threatened. If she had sex before, it was probably someone her own age, a pimply-faced, clumsy kid.

• A woman his own age range and same social, financial status would expect to be engaged in a peer experience. That would not be forbidden fruit.

• Evolutionary psychology tells us that girls in their delicious prime and peak fertility “can trigger the primal instinct present in men to reproduce.”

• Most men are desperate for validation. Some men seek validation through sex with younger women. So being with a younger woman is a definite status symbol and ego boost for most men.

• They want to feel young and alive again.

The reasons older men chase younger women have less to do with sex and everything to do with a profound desire to reassure ourselves that we’ve still got ‘it’ . . . ‘It’ isn’t just physical attractiveness; ‘it’ is the whole masculine package of youth, vitality, and, above all else, possibility.
~ Hugo Schwyzer, author, speaker and a former instructor of history and gender studies

Fascinating.

So that explains the attraction to young women. But what was behind this obsession with underage girls? Why would men of power and privilege illicitly entangle themselves with girls and women young enough to be their biological daughters?

Let’s take that on . . . next time.