Leonardo DiCaprio, why don’t you date someone your own age? | Arwa Mahdawi

Is Leonardo DiCaprio turning into a creepy old man?

Twenty-five is a milestone year. It’s when the development and maturation of your prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for impulse control and decision-making, is finally complete. At 25 you have reached maturity and have a fully formed brain. You also have absolutely no chance of dating Leonardo DiCaprio. As has been frequently observed, the 47-year-old actor appears to be incapable of a relationship with anyone over the age of 25.

Obviously, it’s not exactly uncommon for rich men to date women half their age. But DiCaprio’s predilection for women without fully formed prefrontal cortexes has become a cultural talking point and earned a name (Leo’s Law) because of just how strictly he adheres to the age limit. A few years ago a Reddit user plugged all of DiCaprio’s relationships since 1999 into Excel and came out with a viral chart that shows DiCaprio steadily ageing and his many girlfriends remaining frozen in time, Forever Under 25. This week, a new data-point became available: DiCaprio broke up with his girlfriend of four years, Camila Morone, just a few months after her 25th birthday.

Breakups are rarely pleasant for anyone involved and it’s somewhat mean-spirited to poke fun at them. Of course, that doesn’t bother Twitter, which feeds on misery and pain. Leo’s latest breakup was the subject of much mirth online. (A sample joke: “titanic turns 25 this year at which point i assume leonardo dicaprio will no longer want to be in it.”) There were also some intriguing theories. “[E]veryone assumes that he is the one breaking up with all these 25-yr-olds,” writer and comedian Meredith Dietz tweeted. “[W]hat really happens is that once a woman’s brain finishes developing, she realizes she doesn’t wanna be with leonardo dicaprio.”

While Leo’s Law has sparked a lot of jokes it’s not actually that funny to watch a middle-aged man refuse to date anyone old enough to rent a car without paying an underage driver’s fee. It’s just a bit gross. To be clear: I’m not saying that large age gaps in relationships are automatically problematic or predatory. It’s perfectly possible for two consenting adults to have a healthy and equitable relationship despite a significant age gap. However, it feels like a major flag if a man consistently dates women half his age. One suspects that person isn’t actually looking for a partner, but an admirer.

A lot of men, of course, will say this is rubbish. I can guarantee you that the moment this article goes live a million misogynistic mansplainers are going to crawl into my Twitter mentions to inform me that there’s nothing creepy about DiCaprio, men are simply hardwired to be attracted to women at the peak of their fertility. DiCaprio, in other words, is just obeying his evolutionarily determined instincts. The thing is, that’s not actually true. We know that men on the whole do seek out younger partners, but scientists still aren’t sure whether that’s “natural” or whether it’s social. Some believe it’s down to evolutionary pressures, others believe it’s due to what legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon describes as the “eroticization of female subordination”.

Supporting the latter theory, data shows that the age gap between partners decreases in countries with greater gender equality. A paper on the subject notes: “As gender equality increased, women expressed less preference for older men, men expressed less preference for younger women, and consequently the sex difference in the preferred age of mates became smaller.”

Anyway, I’m not here to settle a debate that has been raging for decades. I’m simply here to urge Mr DiCaprio to consider moving on from his ex with someone more his own age. Leo’s Law is getting really old.

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