Why Are Older Gay Men Who Have Age-Gap Affairs Held to a Lower Standard Than Older Straight Men Who Do Exactly the Same?

Have you ever heard of Bill Belichick? I hadn’t, but apparently he is one of America’s leading football coaches (‘football’ here meaning the mutant form of rugby they play over there, not the real thing we play with a round ball over here). He’s a dour and harsh control-freak who spent 24 years serving as manager of the New England Patriots team: their rough equivalent of Sir Alex Ferguson, but less Scottish and red-nosed. Suddenly, however, Sir Alex has transformed into David Beckham, with photos of him now filling tabloid gossip columns, rather than the sports pages. This is because, just like Fergie with his famous ‘Class of ‘92’, Belichick has publicly demonstrated his commitment towards blooding talented youth – in his case, a 24-year-old former cheerleader and beauty queen named Jordon Hudson, who is almost exactly half a century younger than he is.

Now described as “America’s Most Hated Girlfriend”, Hudson has become the target of much ridicule and disapproval amongst the US public, as has her new Dirty Grandpa. According to the Guardian, the couple “hard-launched [in public] at the American Museum of Natural History Gala in 2024”, which is an impressive feat for a man of that age to achieve. That’s the kind of cheap sex-joke the comedians on America’s biggest TV comedy sketch-show Saturday Night Live were eager to crack themselves, mocking the age-gap duo relentlessly once news of their union broke. In the relevant skit, Donald Trump signed yet another Executive Order named “The Belichick Law”, which would “make it socially acceptable for a man in his 70s to date a 24-year-old”.

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