by James Harvey

Created on: January 01, 2009   Last Updated: August 03, 2011

When I was a younger man 25-30 years ago, it was very hard to conceive an older woman as a subject of sexual objectification. The mere notion was laughable, ridiculous. Besides, I was too busy being a normal young man-pursuing attractive young women my own age or age group. This, of course, is not to say that there were absolutely no young men who had no interest in older women, it just was'nt as open and unabashed as it is today.

Back then, young men were taught to show respect for older persons, especially women who old enough to be their mothers, because they generally respected their own mothers, who were also older women. We very rarely referred to somone else's mother as a "hottie" or openly lusted after them, at least not as brazenly and shamelessly as today's young men. Today though, the attitude is entirely different. Older women are being openly and doggedly pursued by younger men more than in any generation previously.

Of course, the older woman/younger man fad is not new. It 's been going on for centuries. But because of the public norms and taboos of the time, these relationships tended to private,discreet. If the relationship ever became public, it could cause scandal, ignominity or shame. In Bible times, for instance, younger men were taught to treat "older women as mothers", and "younger women as sisters with all chasteness." (1 Tim. 5:2) Centuries later, in early Colonial America, a young man's being romantically linked to an older woman was actually considered a crime in which there were harsh penalties.

In modern times, however, the attitudes regarding sexuality has changed almost entirely. This was particularly true in the 20th Century, in which there were rapidly social changes, especially since the end of the Second World War. Since then, each successive decade has seen more bolder and more brazen conduct. By the 1960's, the doors of public morality was totally 'kicked down' altogether as more and more people began to openly live formerly-shocking lifestyles as never before. In time this attitude came to reflect on the way men and women related to each other-both younger and older.

Why have some younger men become sexually drawn to women not much older or younger than their own mothers? For one thing, it's because what they see on TV and in motion pictures. As the previous paragraph mentioned, this is mainly in effect because the loosening of the moral taboos of society in recent decades. No doubt one of the prevailing trends that has

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