Sunday, October 12, 2008

Such a dating game

Just what is the formula for success in the dating game? After a thought-provoking conversation with a friend one night, this calculation was offered up as a common rule of thumb to determine age/dating potential:

DATING EQUATION: (Your age / 2) + 7 = youngest age to date


Am I the only one who has never heard this one? I’m guessing so, considering I found an entire website dedicated to the actual math of this formula. In fact, this equation is more commonly known as The Standard Creepiness Rule or The Rule of Seven. I'll go ahead and say this rule seems to apply more to men than women, especially since it's in the Wiki Man Code (which I guess is the same idea as the Miller beer Man Laws, Men of the Square Table). In a pinch,there is a handy Creepiness Calculator so that figuring out what's non-creepy is done automatically - simply enter the two datees birthdays. This might come in handy during those late nights out on the town where figuring out what anything numerical, even your own phone number, is a challenge. For a Hollywood spin on the Creepiness Rule, consider that both TomKat (Katie 30 in December, and Tom Cruise 46) and Demi and Ashton (44 and 29 respectively) fit the equation...just barely.

The Creepiness Rule isn't the only theory on age/dating math that I found. I posed this question to friends via Twitter and Facebook to see what other equations and rules were out there. Keep in mind that this is an extremely unscientific poll, done specifically for the purpose of posting the results to Such A Redkatblonde. Only some of the answers are posted, as there were quite a few duplicates.

QUESTION:
What is your dating math? How much older/younger will you go?

ANSWERS:

Older women.

Older: 10 yrs
Younger: 6yrs

(Your age * 1.3) + 2 = oldest age you can date

I won't date anyone under 20, so the count of younger will increment by 1 every year until I am 30. At which point older and younger will be equal at 10 years.

I TRY to stick with the 10 year rule.

I would only date someone like a year or so younger. The older I get, the wider a gap I would be comfortable with. As for older, I'd say about ten years.

I am 32, so I would maybe consider a 30 year old guy (if he was mature, b/c I have had bad luck w/ guys who were slightly younger) and would go all the way up to 48 (as long as they were a young 48).

If you have a different formula for determining dateability, post it as a comment...I promise that someone out there will use it.

6 comments:

Julie said...

According to the calculator, Terry and I are creepy. :P

Seriously, though, it doesn't bother me. I'm very much in favor of "whatever makes you happy". If there aren't any weird psychological things behind the age difference (daddy issues, barely legal issues), who cares?

Kate The Great said...

One of those quotes looks eerily familiar!

I can't do younger... But I can do considerably older. I think that's the way it goes for women.

Me and a 23 year old?

Hell to the no.

Me and a 50 year old?

Far more likely.

ShannanB said...

Wow. I had no idea that there was math behind dating! I personally like being close in age (over is good, under not so much) but when I was younger I briefly dated a guy who was 13 years older than me. After a few weeks I had to break it off. I couldn't take the age difference.

brayden said...

i actually have a formula that has never let me(or anyone that i know) down. it's really quite simple.

8 to 80 blind, crippled, or crazy!



feel free to spread to everyone you know.

brayden

5chw4r7z said...

I'm out of the dating game but a couple months ago these two young girls, 20ish show up at the gym 6am and they both talked non-stop the entire time I was there.
There's no way I'd have the energy to date anyone under thirty.
What I want to know, after sleeping for 8 hours(as if, these were students) WFT do you have to talk about?

Robin Feltner said...

Hilarity! I'm with Kate The Great on this one. I could do 50 before 23. Oh wait, I have to do it vicariously through you...I'm married. Okay, in theory, I'll take 50 over 23. Any. Day. Of. The. Week.

xoxo

 
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