The 14 plus or 14 minus rule

After reading the post and comments over at Icepick's Kitchen Drawer regarding the phenomenally flexible fourteen year-old Princess Elayne (and you can vote on whether or not she is annoying, here) I thought I'd share some thoughts beyond what I said in the comments there.

Yes, she's amazing, yes, she's dressed too provocatively for a fourteen year-old, and yes, most of the men who watched her performance on Master of Champions (IGN review at link) probably found themselves disturbingly titillated.

But then, that's probably natural. It makes sense from an evolutionary biology perspective for men to be attracted to obvious markers of youth, fertility and fitness, regardless of the age of the woman they find attractive.

Luckily, we aren't governed by only our genes and base animal motives, we have minds, and can decide for ourselves that no matter how fascinating a flexible fourteen year-old might be, anything beyond mild curiosity is way, way, way off limits (someone should remind all those losers who end up on Dateline NBC).

So my simple rule for the women I date is they are no more or no less than 14 years older or younger than myself. No real reason why, other than I'm in my mid thirties, so that means I won't date anyone who needs to be carded, or anyone who might order from the senior's menu at Denny's.

Call me a discriminatory jerk if you must, but I think it's a pretty reasonable rule to live by.