Dennis Quaid is engaged to Laura Savoie, who is significantly younger than he is.

He’s 65 and she’s 26. They’re both consenting adults.

So why should we care?

The only reason that I can think of, is that he looks like what happens when clay becomes sentient.

If she’s into that, though, who are we to judge?

Harron Walker from VICE has a different perspective on the whole thing.

I feel conflicted about this, of course. I mean, I’m very happy for Savoie, just as I am for any young, hot genius who makes good on my long-term life goal of marrying a wealthy older man. But then I consider Quaid’s side of things, and I think about all the reasons why these guys can’t seem to make things work with women their own age, why they might be drawn to someone younger, hotter, less powerful, and perhaps less complicated to be with.

You’re making a lot of assumptions about Laura, there.

And then, I come to the startling realization that people 39 years younger than me aren’t even alive yet, and I feel compelled to run towards the nearest knife block, jaw unhinged, ready and willing to devour its pointy contents.

Okay, things have become weird. Let’s take an interlude from Walker’s odd reaction towards two people she doesn’t know, and look at the rule that seems to govern these things in society.

Popular opinion tells us that an older man who wants to date a younger woman can’t go below the age that you get when you take his age, halve it, and then add seven years.

By that logic, Quaid’s cut off age for younger women should be 40, which is still some way away for his young fiancée.

The Independent traces the weird dating rule that suggests that men should date women half their age plus seven back to 1901 where it appears in a book by Max O’Rell, Her Royal Highness, then later in the 1951 play, The Moon is Blue.

Somehow this bit of advice, outlined in the novel and play respectively, became firmly embedded in popular notions about relationships between older men and younger women.

Relationship expert Susan White has some ideas about why the rule has lasted so long:

“There’s no logical reason for this to be a ‘rule.’ Nor does this mathematical equation determine the ‘optimal age gap.’”

“However, you might note that the gap is larger than one would imagine. Historically, a woman was to choose a man the same age, or five to 15 years older. Mid-century, the reason for the elevated age gap would’ve been economic. Women had little ability to earn income. Their husband was their access to social standing and economic stability. Obviously, an older man had more time to achieve a greater number of personal and financial goals.”

Yeah, so next time you recite the rule to a friend, just take a moment to remember that you’re spouting something formulated from before your grandparents were born.

Back to Walker’s VICE article. She’s resisted the urge to eat the kitchen knives and has moved on to science.

A study published last year in Science Advances found that, on straight dating apps, men’s desirability peaks at age 50, while women’s peaks at 18. And according to some Dutch social psychologists who studied men’s and women’s perspectives on romantic age gaps back in 2001, women, like myself, tend to prefer having partners who are close to their own age, while men are open to fucking and marrying a wider age range of women, especially women younger than them, especially as the men themselves age.

To be fair, dating younger women is a bit of a habit for Quaid.

• Married his first wife, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School star P.J. Soles, when she was 28.
• Married his second wife, rom-com legend Meg Ryan, when she was 30.
• Married his third wife, real estate agent Kimberly Buffington, when she was 31.
• Proposed to his probably fourth wife, PhD student Laura Savoie, when she was 26.

So he keeps getting older, but they stay the same age…

This really does remind me of Leo DiCaprio and that graph about his dating habits.

Walker goes on to outline some rules for who people can and can’t date that I have very little interest in repeating.

Why? Because unless there’s a crime being committed, I’m not really bothered.

Consenting adults gonna do, what consenting adults wanna do.

[source:independent&vice]