Guy here. I'n going to start making a concerted effort to pay more attention to women my age (43), and simultaneously somewhat ignore women 10+ years younger. Just when it comes to walking through stores, or choosing which grocery line I'm going to line up in.
After being told for 5+ years repeatedly by people anywhere from late teens to my age that I look at least 10 years younger than I am, I'm growing weary of it. I really do feel 10 years younger than I am compared to when I was a teen and hearing the grumbling that came out of the mouths of forty somethings.
I still dress pretty youngish at times and that may be part of the problem. Also, I have a lot of different looks and don't like being tied down to one kind of social grouping, for lack of a better term.
I really don't have all that much in common with others in general, though I'm finding as I get older I'm relating better to people who've seen a bit or a lot of life already in one way or another. Also, most of the time I've only been relating to women in the last few years, but I just met an awesome guy about my age who I've got a shit-ton in common with and relate to better than any other friend I've had in my life pretty much.
This social experiment started last night, actually, and it wasn't really very planned or anything. I had to go pick up a couple greeting cards at the dollar store. Browsing greeting cards always tends to attract women, especially if I mind my own business, focus on the task, and wear headphones. A couple gorgeous women walked by and kind of lingered after I'd been there a bit. One was twenty something and the other about my age. I acknowledged both but didn't really pay any attention to either until I was genuinely needing help.
I asked the forty something woman if she'd look at a card I was considering for my sister-in-law's birthday to let me know if it was alright. My brother and my SIL went through a rough patch recently and I don't want to make anything worse. I think the woman at the dollar store had a wedding ring on (which I hadn't notice prior), but it might've been on another finger. She had a couple rings on her left hand. Anyways, she seemed to really like the card, so I thanked her (omg I hope I did), and went to buy it.
I've just secured a job in my new city but it technically doesn't start for another couple weeks, so I'm definitely not ready to be asking anyone out yet. I've made a lot of poor choices and had some bad luck with career stuff too. Also, I've had such a long relationship dry spell that I don't even know if I could get into the groove of things again. I might wait until I'm more established and stuff too. I might even consider just not even trying to date or start a romantic relationship at all.
The experiment will continue though. I felt awesome on the way home. I feel like I'm entering a new more mature stage in life. Yes the attention from women in their 20s and early 30s is wonderful and has been wonderful, but really, it's not helping me any. I'd probably relate much better long term to someone very close to my age. So it's time to start only having eyes for such women that I meet in public.