Toyboys: a third of women in their 40s want one!
Following on from my Evening Standard blog last week about Sam Taylor Wood, 42, and Aaron Johnson, 19 who have announced they are to be married, I think we will probably be seeing more and more marriages where the woman is significantly older. It’s no longer just a celebrity thing, it’s now going mainstream according to Parship, who have just published a new study on the changing desires of women in their 40s. According to their survey 34% of women in their 40s and 50s want to date and even marry a younger man.
This is a dramatic change from their last survey in 2005, a mere four years ago, when only 8% said they were interested in younger men. Back in 2006 when I first started thinking of launching my own dating site, it was this particular niche that I felt was not catered for. I looked around and saw that more than half my female friends had either married or were dating younger men, and from my own experience (I’ve always had younger boyfriends) I felt this was a trend that would continue to grow.
When I launched www.toyboywarehouse.com in Jan 2007 I thought to myself how are we going to get enough attractive young men on it, but to my amazement that has never been the problem. We’ve been inundated with wannabe toyboys ever since the beginning, and that includes men in their 40s, although the main demographic is between 20 and 40. The stats confirm that there has been massive growth on this side of the sexual divide too as the survey finds that 18% of men under 40 are looking to date an attractive older woman, whereas it was only 5% five years ago.
When the site went live I thought the main female demographic would be 35 – 55 and so it was in the beginning but I’m finding more and more women in their late twenties and early thirties are following the trend and choosing younger men and this is also something borne out by the survey. Now 17% of women in their thirties are looking for a younger man. Society changes when women are financially independent. The feisty, independent women of today are going to make different choices from those their mothers made. The younger men of today, often sons of liberated women, see all the advantages of the attractive older woman. Vive la difference! Go for it girls!
By Julia
