Originally Posted by Dan Savage
Fact is, MMM, there's more than cultural forces at work here. Yes, the adolescent body, male and female, is the reigning beauty ideal, and the culture celebrates and sexualizes the young. But there's nothing arbitrary about this. The reptile part of the male brain is wired to find fertility insanely attractive, and when women are teenagers they're fertile as fuck and their offspring are likelier to survive. And it's not just men that are subject to the forces of evolution; the reptile part of the female brain is wired to find tall, strong, powerful, and successful men attractive. Why? Because these are the guys who can chase down, kill, and drag mastodons back to the cave.
Thankfully, most modern adult straight males want to be with adult females and most find mature women attractive. (Many men maintain that women are less likely to betray the reptile part of their brains and date men who aren't successful and attractive.) Adult men that can form adult relationships with adult women but also find teenage girls attractive--and that describes most straight guys, MMM--are wise enough to 1) refrain from dating teenage girls (they're often insufferable, and while they have firmer bodies they usually don't know what to do with them), and 2) keep it to themselves for fear of annoying the women in their lives, which is what your husband was doing.
