Equality in seventh heaven: When the new love is 26 years older

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More women in relationships with significantly younger partners, all well and good.

Photo: Cavan Images / imago images / Cavan Images

Striving for more equality in all areas of life is the eternal New Year's resolution in politics.

All are for it.

Coalition agreements and election programs sound promising – before reality intervenes.

Parity in the cabinet?

Let's try another time.

At some point, when the Third World War does not have to be averted and a man with a camouflage jacket and a determined look in the tank turret is what the troops and the concerned public need.

After all, at the beginning of the new year, emancipatory progress can be reported on another battlefield: the boulevard.

A well-known moderator is said to be with a Berlin bestselling author.

The emphasis on the age difference is interesting.

The "Bild" newspaper headlined earlier this week: "Talk-Lady … happy again: your new love is 26 years younger".

If the news is true, the celebrity would have managed to enter an area of ​​seventh heaven that previously only men accompanied by a woman half her age could enter.

Actors, athletes or managers are regular guests there.

Now one could say that there are certain areas in which gender equality would be dispensable.

More women in relationships with significantly younger partners, all well and good.

Even nicer would be headlines like “Parity achieved in Parliament!”, “The gender pay gap is history!” or “Poverty among women in old age is declining!” Message about their relationship status also not confirmed.

The two may have simply become victims of the sensationalist people press.

Pity, however, is misplaced.

If you find it desirable that women can have everything and by that not just mean a double name or the compatibility of child and career, then this "everything" should of course also include the downsides of fame, power and celebrity.

In addition, admiration always resonates in headlines such as "The new one is xy years younger".

Big age gaps in relationships often seem like an odd show of power.

In any case, the image of Mrs Schröder-Kim (52 ​​years old), who is standing praying at the window of a Moscow hotel while her husband Gerhard Schröder (78 years old) is negotiating peace for Ukraine in the Kremlin, has the cliché of the naive little mouse on its side of the potent maker not refuted.

Partnerships with a large age difference are certainly also possible on an equal footing.

In any case, the "Bild" newspaper could easily have made the 30-year-old Berlin bestselling author the protagonist of its story and headlined: "Your new girl is 26 years older!"

But the new year is probably not old enough for so much emancipatory progress.