Sexes: Season Of Autumn-Summer Love

More and more women find their ideal partner in a younger man

Say the words "older woman, younger man," and the images are at once vivid and seamy. Sagging socialites clinging to ambitious gigolos. Predatory Mrs. Robinsons seducing confused innocents. At best such autumn-summer pairings have been viewed as risque; at worst, as grotesque curiosities. Well, look again. The odd couple isn't so odd anymore. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, of the 2 million weddings performed each year in the U.S., 22% are between older women and younger men, up from 16% in 1970. "It signals a profound change in how men and women are looking at each other, and...

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