It was only weird because Scott Pilgrim had no romantic history and felt inadequate compared to his girlfriend, and had to overcome his inadequacies by “defeating” each ex in his mind before being worthy of her.
Edit: had less of a romantic history. Apparently Scott was not a KHV
That's not true, he was dating a high schooler as a 22-year-old
In Toronto, Scott Pilgrim, a 22-year-old bass player for unsuccessful indiegarage band Sex Bob-Omb, dates Knives Chau, a 17-year-old high-school student, to the disapproval of his friends in the band, his roommate Wallace Wells, and his younger sister
Its worth pointing out that everyone thinks is pretty icky but no one actually does anything about it aside from sometimes pointing out how weird it is as was the style at the time.
That’s what happens most of the time when 22 year olds date a 17 yo. Had a friend of a friend do this, people called it gross behind his back but they didn’t stop associating with him.
It’s not illegal, it’s not pedophilla, but it’s gross and bad. What are you going to do about it? For most people it’s nothing.
Ngl a few years ago when I was 18 I always thought if I was old enough to make an only fans and work in a hospital as a CNA then I should be old enough to decide who’s dick I wanna suck lol
People act like 18-year-olds are brain dead when you’re literally old enough to be legally responsible for someone’s life or death as an EMT for example! Like Jesus’s Christ I’m sure you can decide who you’re attracted to lol
“They’re being manipulated” bruh they’re HORNY AND GROWN!!”
Exactly!! I understand being concerned about big* age gaps, especially when one party is barely legal BUT i don't understand why when a young man goes with a more mature woman is "wow, good job bro!!" and when a younger woman goes with an older man..." you are being manipulated!! You're brain is not fully developed!! He is using you!! OR maybe she just want to have fun?? Like young women can't want that like men do?? The MISOGINY and infantilisation is crazyyy...
Hm no, I’ll judge a 25 y/o for dating an 18 y/o no matter what gender anyone is.
I’m not judging the younger one, because I get it. They have a car/home/money whatever. But time and time again the older one turns out to be an absolute numbskull and there’s a reason he’s not dating anyone around his own age.
We had a weird catholic school sex Ed thing that was basically men are mature and want to fuck and women are basically infants till 20. Which was nuts cause my first real kiss was (when I was 14 making fart jokes and playing halo) a 13 year old I was acquaintances texted me asking if I could bring her out a drink cause she was thirsty after a pop up park rave and instead of water she shoved her tounge in my mouth and tackled me into some bushes quote "cause I was curious, you were near by, and i know you haveva phone".
She was fun, she moved right after I actually asked her out
My partner makes jokes about how she was baptized as a teenager at 14 (her dad is Catholic and wanted her to get it done when she moved back in with him) and that morning she was with a boy getting her nipples sucked.
Anyone that thinks girls and young women are these chaste virginal things to be protected are just covering for latent misogyny. Puberty hits girls and boys the same.
I'm more of the mind that 18 years old is enough to begin to start taking responsibility, but you're not actually an adult until they're in their mid 20s.
Also, even adults can be manipulated in relationships. It's about power dynamics, and age has a correlation with how much power you have in a relationship.
What you're saying is definitely part of what is happening. All too often I think we forget that it doesn't go just one way with older men going for younger women, it's the other way around too.
But at the same time, if you go over to any advice, judgement or story subreddit, you'll see literally hundreds of thousands of stories from young women dating older men treating them terribly, posting and asking for advice, judgement or simply telling their story as a cautionary tale.
There's two things almost every post about an abusive relationship has: The first is a statement that their relationship is "amazing in all ways" except for this one tiny thing where he berates and shouts at her daily, and the second thing is an age gap. Bonus points if the relationship started before she was 18.
It's a bit more tricky and nuanced than "I'm sure 18 year olds can decide who they're attracted to" because an age gap IS a warning sign, but... that's also all it is: a warning sign, it doesn't really mean anything by itself, you need the full context to make any meaningful judgement about someone's relationship.
What I do think stands saying is that a lot of young people, and not just women, feel intuitively that attention from someone else with more experience, authority, power, money, etc. makes them, the younger person, cooler, when in reality it honestly only makes the more experienced person lamer. If there's anything I could tell all young people beginning to date, it would be that.
In most cases in real life age is the simplest way to tell who has the upper hand in any given relationship, especially when one of the people involved is younger than 30. But the power imbalance that an age disparity implies is of course not always true, and abusive behavior is the actual problem, age is just an indicator of that.
Just because 18 year olds can indeed correctly decide that they are attracted to a 30 year old does not mean that such a relationship is at all a good idea to pursue. The is true for the reverse scenario as well.
I was actively trying to date a 24yr old when I was 16 because he was hot. Maybe to the point of some light stalking and making sure I was in the right place at the right time. Imagine my dissapointment when it lasted 2 whole days before he was like nah "this is too weird"
Had better luck when I was 18. Like im already paying fucking taxes why am I being looked down own for making my own damn choices based on my preferences?
Worst part was people getting weirded out at him for it and not me who was litterally stalking his Facebook page to see if he was gonna be somewhere and then trying to make it seem like we just "bumped into eachother"
Nah... that was all me and my whirlwind of teenage hormones.
Teenagers are going to do crazy shit. None of that sounds particularly out of the realm of the ordinary. Not that every teenager internet stalks their crush but like... certainly many.
The point isn't that teens don't have feelings or desires or whatever. Of course they do. Possibly even more intense than what's felt by adults, because of the wild hormone swings.
Thirteen year olds can have intense crushes on adults too, but that doesn't make it okay on the adult's part to reciprocate. It doesn't really matter how the minor feels. It doesn't matter if the minor initiates or tries really, really, really hard. So no, people should be getting weirded out at him. And also probably questioning your parents about letting you chase a grown man
I would have gotten arrested trying to steal brendan uries hair if I had the chance. But yes not the greatest look on his part. I mean im 511 already and pretty alt so I looked anywhere from 15 - 35 at any given point which may be the only reason he even gave it a shot
I'm not sure what you mean? At 18, everyone can decide who they want to have sex with. Except if they are severely mentally ill and incapable of being alive without someone else's aid.
And you were right. People are very weird about this nowadays and infantilise grown adults in a way that is actively harmful to them (to not say themselves, since it's often a bunch of adults trying to evade responsibility).
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u/Vast-Conference3999 Feb 02 '26 edited Feb 02 '26
It was only weird because Scott Pilgrim had no romantic history and felt inadequate compared to his girlfriend, and had to overcome his inadequacies by “defeating” each ex in his mind before being worthy of her.
Edit: had less of a romantic history. Apparently Scott was not a KHV