In your opinion, is it socially acceptable for a 27 year old man to date a 21 year old woman?

Totally OK. TOTALLY! Go for it!

Both adult (age); no objections (should (have to) be) in the way.

Why wouldn’t it be?

It’s not illegal. Why would someone have an issue with it?

Um…it’s 6 years… why would it not be???

I bet most people could not guess the age difference anyway.

Totally acceptable. I was 6 years older than my husband. What are the naysayers saying?

The rule-of-thumb on this is half the older person’s age + 7 years. So the lower bound for a 27 year old is a 20 yr.old. So 21/27 is perfectly fine.

(The rule of thumb is just an acceptable guideline. But it really is dependent on the individuals. If the older person is not controlling or domineering, as long as the relationship is healthy and the younger person is free, a greater age difference is okay, too.)

That equation only works for ages 14+.

To be fair, the 21 year old that seems interested in me looks younger than 21, she looks around 18–19. I’m afraid I’ll get weird looks wherever we go.

Do you look your age or older?

Yes.

Of course. Any chance the people saying this is weird have some sort of agenda? It’s totally fine, and I don’t think you’d get weird looks. Everybody knows people in that age range may look quite a bit older or younger.

Yep.

Yes; there’s nothing at all wrong with it.

Sure. If the age difference (which isn’t much) doesn’t bother those directly involved with the relationship (the man and woman), then it doesn’t really matter. I would feel differently if it was a 21 year old man and a 15 year old girl.

I married my wife when we were these ages. So, yes.

I look about my age, but some people say I look older than 27.

Of course!

So what if you did get weird looks? It is their lack of medication, not theirs.

I was only a few months younger than my first husband, but I looked to be about fifteen. Not my fault. Not his fault. We wanted to make each other happy, not everyone else.

It’s fine. Saying people should date because of an age difference is like saying people shouldn’t date because of the difference in the of the colour of their skin, country of birth, religion, star sign, blood group etc…

Prior to my wife, I can recall only one woman with whom I was involved after high school who was younger than myself. She was also the only one who didn’t smoke cigarettes.

I don’t see any problem here except your doubts, which will communicate themselves to her whether or not you mean them to.

In my early twenties I had a boyfriend who was a lot older than I was. We were fine with it. Who cares about people’s weird looks? Those weird looks belong to them. Give them a weird look back, if it’ll make you feel better, or just ignore them. If you are seeing a lot of weird looks, you are paying too much attention to others and not enough to your date.

Yes.

In my opinion it is not just socially acceptable but completely unremarkable.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, as long as the maturity levels are similar and you both have mutual interests. Other people’s opinions don’t matter if you really like each other. Don’t let a fear of judgment keep you from what could be a fulfilling relationship.

Did exactly this a long time ago. Several really awkward moments. Just picked her up from her house and she said her parents gave her condoms. In a party with her friends I felt really out of place dancing to their generation’s current hits.

Didn’t work out in the end. She was fun, bubbly and sexy but I shouldn’t have been distracted from the simple truth that in her particular case, she was still more of a teenager at 21 than a fairly mature young woman.

Indubitably!!!

Half your age, plus 7. Assuming she’s legal.

Sadly, half my age MINUS 7 and she’d still be legal.

Update on my question; we’ve been going out now for a few weeks