In this weeks episode of ‘Boyz!’ podcast, Aisling dissected age shaming when it comes to women dating younger men. She also openly spoke about her experience in dating older and younger men and reflected on a time that she was labelled a cougar. To view the entire list of host options, just click on Boyz! Podcast Link Tree. To get immediate access to this episode on Spotify, Just Click Here! Below, we have synopsised the learning outcomes from this episode and Aisling’s perspective on age shaming when it comes to women dating younger men in Ireland.
Age is Just a Number!
Aisling most certainly had an interesting perspective on this saying. In order to put what she was saying into perspective, she reflected on her experiences in dating older men who behaved infantile. The key point made was that somebodies maturity doesn’t entirely come down to age. She admitted that while, yes age does play a role in experience, but it’s not all encompassing of how mature someone is. Other things make up somebodies maturity, such as life experience, their upbringing, who they are to their core and their DNA.
In exploring this a little further, she looked back on older men she had dated who showed massive signs of immaturity, such as a time when she was on a date with a man who had a tantrum in a restaurant after they messed up his order. Finding herself in a position where she had to step in and be the adult, this was a short lived romance.
Not necessarily a reflection of maturity, but while on the topic of things that were an absolute no in the romance department, she moved onto speaking about people who are rude to the wait staff. In doing so, she spoke about a time when her date found a hair in his food and was extremely rude and dismissive to the waiter. Aisling tied this into self awareness and complete ignorance in her dates understanding of how they would be perceived in that scenario.
Females Age Shaming Females
While looking back on a memory when Aisling was labelled a ‘cougar’ for dating a man a couple of years younger than her, she expressed her opinion and thoughts that females in Ireland are afraid to date below their age because of age shaming such as this. Painting that oh so familiar scene of the type of girl, who goes slightly OTT in expressing her opinion of girls who date below their age, Aisling said that she thinks this is more to do with self esteem. Her opinion is that girls just do this to ensure that everyone knows that they would never date a younger man because they’re concerned about their image and how this would be perceived.
Overall, the episode is very fruitful in listening to someones experiences in dating below and above her age and gaining an insight into their perspective on what makes someone mature. Judging by this episode, this podcast seems to be very open, honest and overall refreshing!
Aisling’s not the only one trying to open up the discussion on age shaming and move past the taboo of women dating below their age. Podcaster, Sinead Hegarty also touched upon this topic. To access the ‘The Sinead Says Podcast’, Click here for Apple Podcasts and Click here for Spotify.
