Word: men
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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When it comes to men and girls, though, what December sees in May is fairly obvious, but what does May see in December? Christmas, wags answer; and not even the most romantic would deny that money and marriage are often intertwined. Still, today's unions of old and young seem to involve more than sex or cash. As women grow more emancipated and financially independent, the necessity of marrying older men is disappearing. Now the considerations are more psychological and esthetic. It is a commonplace that some young girls turn to older men in a psychological quest for their...
...December defenders consider the pessimists obtuse and oblivious of the record. For one thing, the men who marry younger women these days are generally marked by conspicuous success or at least a mature sense of their own character; and those qualities go far toward cementing marriage. Humphrey Bogart married Lauren Bacall when he was 45 and she 20. Said he: "The mature man is more experienced. He has read more books, seen more of the world. He knows how to court a woman. He has learned the hundred little courtesies that make her happy she is a woman...
...quietly protective in introducing his young Oregon-born wife to Washington's intimidating society. On the other hand, a young wife should not be unduly nervous about reminding her husband of their age difference-elaborately avoiding another set of tennis or politely yawning at 11 p.m. Most older men will only react by trying doubly hard to prove how young they are, sweating it out on the tennis court or discothequing it way past their bedtime...
...many (perhaps most) marriages would seem ill-advised if not maniacal, could they be considered dispassionately in advance. Most May-December marriages thus considered look even worse. Yet there is no evidence that they turn out any worse than most unions-and possibly they work a lot better. Older men, for example, are no longer obsessed by their careers, and are much less likely to become obsessed with other young women. They are more indulgent; and besides, with them a woman is much less conscious of her own aging. Above all, the old and young partners are generally...
...least in absolute figures, the number of May-December marriages is bound to rise. More and more older men are divorced each year, and many will seek partners younger than their former wives. Until now, an implicit criticism has always been that such marriages somehow violate the natural order; the common reaction has been that the marriages are disreputably "Freudian," or that the husband is some sort of Lolita-chasing Humbert. As such marriages increase in visibility, however, it will probably become clear that neither reaction is necessarily just. There are obvious perils. Yet these should perhaps be balanced against...