I do think we’re in the middle of a serious trend.” Theresa MacPhail is a medical anthropologist and associate professor in the science and technology programme at the Stevens Institute in New York. But she’s not just an academic – she’s also a single woman in her fifties with extensive first-hand experience of using dating apps. And the “trend” she’s referring to concerns age gaps.
We’re well used to scrutiny and discourse around the older man, younger woman trope – see the million or so thinkpieces about Leonardo DiCaprio and his bevy of love interests, who never seem to get past the age of 25 without being abruptly dumped, like some mad dating version of Logan’s Run – but MacPhail is talking about the reverse phenomenon.
