A couple years ago, a group of freshmen at a college in Massachusetts staged a To Catch a Predator-style sting of a so-called “pedophile.” Their target: a 22 year-old man, who was lured to a dorm for a promised hookup with, and please prepare yourself, an 18-year-old woman.
The students were reportedly shocked to learn that this encounter was not illegal. They were even more shocked when the police charged them with conspiracy, kidnapping, and assault. But if you know anything about the Gen Z approach to matters of the heart, then this story probably does not surprise you. Because among our youngest adults, it seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife—but only one whose birth date falls within less than six months of his own, and really, ideally, it should be more like six minutes.
The precise origins of this phenomenon are hard to pinpoint, although the #MeToo movement, with its overwhelming fixation on age as a proxy for power and privilege, is surely among the contributing factors. In recent years, female celebrities who dare to date men a decade older have felt compelled to release videos explaining themselves to young fans. “I do not need you to tell me who I should and should not love,” said a 24-year-old Florence Pugh in 2020, when people attacked her for her relationship with a 45-year-old Zach Braff. The age gap between 44-year-old Chris Evans and his 28-year-old wife, Alba Baptista, has been called “gross.”
As such, it’s hard to say if Age of Attraction, a new reality dating show on Netflix, is supposed to be a rejoinder to Gen Z’s age-related hang-ups or an affirmation of their validity. Either way, I’m obsessed. The premise is simple: A dating pool of several dozen straight singles between the ages of 20 and 60 assemble at the impossibly scenic Whistler, British Columbia, where they meet, chat, and see if any sparks fly. There are no restrictions on what they can do, or talk about, save one: In the initial round of speed dating, participants may not ask each other’s ages, nor share their own.
