I saw Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz in Elegy the other day, and was amazed at how natural it remains for movie audiences to accept an older man as love partner for a much younger woman. In the film, it was made clear that Cruz was over 30 years younger than Kingsley, and yet, according to the script, she was madly in love with him, anyway. I mean, madly. Even those actors who traditionally project less charm than Cary Grant ever did or a lesser physical specimen than Harrison Ford still does remain fair game for these oddball matchings.

Call me fussy, but when I was Penelope Cruz’s age, it took a lot more than a moody, commitment-phobic character such as the one played by Kingsley in this film, to conjure up naughty thoughts about him inside my head, let alone any other part of my anatomy. So, what is going on here? Are we still living in a double-standard society? Or is that what the media would lead us to believe?

The truth is that most older women are just not interested in hooking up with men who are young enough to be their son. And those who are, well, they identify themselves as “cougars,” so we know from the start what they are about. If it’s true that men are born with the drive in their DNA to spread their seed till they keel over and die, I guess we have no way to blame them for their lifelong quest for women of childbearing years.

Excuse me while I go lock the door on my daughter’s room.