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Why the Dirty Old Man Trope Just Won’t Die Already
We’re all sick of it, even men are
There’s this magic thing that happens at around 40 — and it’s not a mid-life crisis. It’s a mid-life reveal of our true selves.
And also a mid-life f*ck-it-all attitude.
You stop caring so much, you stop defining your life through what others think of you, and you start having much less patience for people’s BS.
For some men that translates into becoming grumpy old men, dirty old men, lonely old men, or sweet old men. The last one is far less common than the first three, sadly.
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That’s what prompted this article. A male friend, who recently turned 55, told me ‘I’m afraid in about five years max I’m going to turn into one of those grumpy old men.’
That’s weird, I thought… I’ve always seen him as a dirty old man, even when he was younger. So did other women. Even other men mentioned it to me — men see it too, they’re just more accepting of it.
