Age gaps, swag gaps and Claude gaps – are they really such a big deal in relationships?

The internet is making everything into a ‘relationship gap’ by seizing on any difference between two dating humans It started with the age gap. Can a 40-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman truly get along? That was once a question answered with a resounding “yes” by creepy English professors or moustached indie film-makers with a questionable grasp on the meaning of Lolita. Then came gen Z. A cohort raised on the rigid moral boundaries of internet discourse – things are either good or bad, no in-between – decided that May-December relationships were either problematically one-sided or transactional in nature. Growing up in the fractured aftermath of #MeToo, where monstrous men were often much older than the women they victimized, probably contributed to that conclusion. The upshot was heated posting on social media about celebrities such as Billie Eilish, Florence Pugh and Beyoncé almost certainly being “groomed” by their older partners. Vogue wondered how many years between a couple’s respective birth years was acceptable. The New York Times called older women “in demand by younger men” The age gap became a news cycle of its own. Now, the discourse has expl