Ick Alert: Are Barely Legal Guys The New Barely Legal Girls?

I promise there are no pornographic pictures in this post, but I can't promise you won't want to avert your eyes anyway.

Ugh sorry you guys. I didn't know how else to illustrate this.

So, an obsession with young women who have just crossed the bridge into adulthood has been a thing forever (See: porn, Girls Gone Wild, ticking countdowns until pop starlets turn 18). And while I'm all for gender equality, I'm not thrilled by the trend I'm seeing to do the same to young men.

Maybe I'm just feeling sensitive about this because last night, I was forced to watch That's My Boy, a movie that glorifies the idea of a 13-year-old boy sleeping with and impregnating his teacher. I didn't make it to the end to see if there were any redeeming lessons, because Adam Sandler's Boston accent made my ears bleed, but it just seemed gross to me. You'd never see that with the reverse gender roles.

OK, so that was fiction. But in real life news, TLC will be running a one-hour program later this month called Extreme Cougar Wives, featuring three older women and their much younger men. One woman, the 53-year-old Jude, is dating a 21-year-old who dated her daughter seven years ago.

Now look, I have no problem with older women dating younger men, whatsoever, so I don't mean to villainize these women. Men do it all the time, and frankly I have a feeling this show is probably intended more for the shock factor of older women wanting to have sex, to which I say, good for them! These people are all adults, so they can love who they choose. But you have to admit, dating your daughter's ex is kind of nuts, right? I'm certain that if one of my parents did this, I would totally freak out and I'm not exactly new to adulthood. The aforementioned woman must have met her current boyfriend when he was 14, and she was well into her forties, even if they didn't date until he was an adult.