this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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When we decided to mind our own business and stop moralizing other people’s relationships based on our personal feelings.
Exactly, this "rule" is really just equivalent to other forms of snake oil there is. It is baseless and completely made up.
Found Leo's account.
Seriously though why so hostile about this? Of course it's made up, it's a general rule of thumb, and it describes whether people are likely to look at a couple and say, "ew".
One day I mentionned this rule while having a dinner with friends. One of them was a woman I met fir the first time.
It turned out his husband was way older than this rule allowed when they met. And now that the rule is fine, she didn’t felt bad about her husband.
Seriously, I felt so shitty. Let people loves who they love without discrimination as long as this is consensual between adults.
That's because it's all based on assumptions and projected morals. Commonly treated as a ultimate truth not as a "rule of thumb" as it is destined to be - hostility is built in this "rule".
In general, this rule essentially dictates the ethics of independent people. Because of this there is no description, it's a requirement to say "ew".
It matches experiences, if you read the other replies.
I don't quite agree with the replies. The statement "it matches experiences" is baseless as stated in my other reply.
In general, experience ≠ age. This is because experience is influenced by various physical factors such as opportunities, learning environments, etc. Not exactly by age.
What's interesting is this rule apparently originated from the early 1900s.
https://lemmy.zip/comment/21531881
Ah, so "half your age plus seven" wasn't the low end, it was the target.
That certainly re-frames things.