Problematic Age Gap discourse is back – but we need more nuanced understandings of power dynamics | Rebecca Shaw

There has been a recent shift from judgment and concern about age-gap relationships where there is a clear power imbalance, to judgment about any kind of age gap.

JoJo Siwa is a 21-year-old woman in a queer relationship with a person who is 27 years old .

Some young people are finding it inherently problematic for two people with any sort of age gaps to date.

The issue is that the nuances of each situation don't seem to matter any more.

We are trending towards having the same arbitrary rule applied across all relationships.

Accusing every relationship with a five-year age gap of being problematic, or involving grooming, heavily diminishes the very real and very common practices of abusers.

It dilutes the concept, it fuzzies the borders of what we are looking for, and it makes the real baddies harder to identify.