Gorgeous television presenter Caroline Flack is not averse to abuse or indeed opinion in regards to her choice of men (or as the Daily Mail prefer, boys), but should her age really be relevant in the case of love?
It has been recently reported that the Xtra Factor host is dating Jack Street, a music manager after they were seen this year attending both Wireless and Glastonbury together as well as flirting on Twitter. Their union however, is not what is interesting the tabloids- it is their age gap of seven years that have whipped the media into a frenzy. I keep asking myself WHY? Flack, at 32 is perfectly within her rights to associate herself with a 25 year-old and the fact that The Daily Mail quoted the relationship as a 'new toyboy romance' disgusts me slightly.
(above: new boyfriend Jack Street)
If the tables were turned and Street had been the older party, there would have been nothing to write. Society has a warped image of women having a short shelf-life in the limelight, a sad picture for young girls who look for role-models in celebrities. Luckily Flack seems to have a thick skin after previously dating One Direction member Harry Styles back in 2011, who at the time was fifteen years her junior.
"It's tough. I did not kill someone. I just went out with someone younger. I have developed thicker skin and become more hardened to it. I don't get as upset as I used to, but I am still human."
The host must have been made to feel unusual and outcast in some way to have got to the point of making this statement, a quote I find hardly surprising after the vicious words of the Daily Mail who claimed " the star maintained there was nothing wrong with dating a younger man" as if it were something illegal or taboo.
(above: extremely distasteful fan-made image)
She rightly defended herself by saying
"It’s a social thing that people aren’t accepting of big age gaps. Some people tend to see the negative immediately and that's what I find really strange."
"If two people like each other and get on, why does anyone else find a negative in it? I know it's human nature for everyone to gossip. But why say it's bad? No one's being hurt at all in anyway"
So to the haters, and indeed the Daily Mail, I say leave Caroline Flack alone. Putting emphasis on her age is not just victimisation, but sexism too.
