Engineer David Minns is known for creating dating apps and websites with a twist.
Back in February, in an effort to reduce the abuse that transgender people often receive when dating online, he launched Butterfly, a transgender dating app that stops offensive terms being used within messages with the help of an auto-correction tool.
A month later came Dinky One – a dating app for men who have small or micro penises.
And now, David is tackling relationship age gaps.
His latest invention is an app where you are only able to match with people who are 20 years older or younger than yourself – and it’s aptly named 20 Dating.
The aim is to tackle the stigma around relationship age gaps, where women are often judged much more harshly than men (with the age-old trope of females being cougars when dating younger people).
However, 20 Dating is not just for romance – platonic friendships are encouraged, too.
‘The glamorous world of movie stars and music artists is full of large age gap relationships, some as extreme as 20 years,’ David tells us.
’20 Dating brings a little of that in reach of us all. There will be older divorced men and women who want a radical change and adventure who will match perfectly with a 20 something who wants a mature partner.
‘But 20 is for all relationship types; from friendship to casual and serious.
‘Hopefully, it will generate some amazing serious relationships, but failing that inject some excitement back into people’s lives with a relationship that is different to the vast majority.’
Speaking of the gender stigma around relationship age gaps, he adds: ‘It seems socially expectable for an older man to date a younger woman but taboo the other way around.
‘But in reality, it makes a lot of sense for men to match with older women.
‘Guys don’t live as long or suffer ill health earlier. You can see this often with more mature groups out and about. There can be five women and one guy, just about keeping up!
‘When guys are younger their “sexual peak” is more in line with an older woman.’
So, how does the app work?
It’s pretty simple really.
Depending on your age, the algorithm will automatically manage the search settings and the profiles that become available – though you control whether to go higher or lower.
You can also add in the usual bits; distance, gender, sexuality and pictures.
Once matched, users can chat away and swap photos through the app’s messaging system.
20 Dating is free to use and you can sign up with an email address.
You might have trouble finding someone to match with though, as the app currently only has a few hundred users.
However, David anticipates thousands more members in coming weeks as word-of-mouth spreads.
He adds: ‘I love making dating products that are difficult to achieve on a mainstream site.
‘Trying to connect with someone more than 20 years older/younger on a product like Tinder or Bumble is at best going to end up with a lot of rejection, but more likely a barrage of abuse with replies like, “You’re old enough to be my dad!”
‘Everyone knows where they stand on 20 and you cannot even take a sneaky look at someone with a 19-year gap. It’s like being socially distanced by 20 years!’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/08/24/man-launches-dating-app-people-who-want-relationship-age-gaps-20-years-13171751/
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