Creepy old men

So I joined a new web site, PlentyOfFish. They have a feature where people can vote on how attractive your pictures are. You can turn this off, but for some reason I didn’t.

I originally put up a photo without makeup and had a guy in the 18-25 vote four and 3 guys in 33-40 vote 6. Then I changed it to a really cute picture with makeup. (This is a super, super cute photo--maybe the cutest photo I’ve had taken in my life. The camera is looking a little down on my. My hair is swinging and I have an impish charming smile. I’m in a party dress and you can tell my arms aren’t super thing, but it is a great photo.)

Here’s what the men voted on a scale of 10.

Average (33 votes): 5.21
18-25 (4 votes) 3.5
26-32 (5 votes) 4.4
33-40 (7 votes) 8.29
41+ (17 votes) 4.59

So this really seems weird. First of all, I’m kind of flattered by the 33-40 year olds. And surprised. The 18-25 year olds, they shouldn’t think I’m cute. I’m too old for them. But the 41+ is creepy. Now there are, I’m sure, 42 year olds who aren’t doing this, but, for the most part, what I’m seeing is much more judgment from older men. The number of older guys who have, out of the blue, contacted me to say mean things (really mean, like "You're stupid and ugly--why don't you give up") has really surprised me, and is a large part of the reason I left CollarMe. I never put a finger on it before (and, of course there are some very nice men who happen to be older than me that I’ve met along the way).

But what the hell is going on with these men? I mean why are there
a) so many older men checking me out (more than all the age groups under 41)
b) they are so much more judgmental than men my age?

I used to think if I dated an older guy he would be happier with my body, but I’m beginning to question that. (I should mention, I wish they had a better breakdown of age data--clearly a 43 year old is different than a 65 year old).

What if these older guys have never accepted that they are getting older? And they know they can't date teenagers anymore because the teenagers won't go out with them, but they are just angry at the women in their 30s for not looking like teenagers?

I also found it very interesting that about 5% of the men allow women to vote on their pics. And when men did, the men were SUPER-bitchy to the other men, giving them ones and two, but the women were super nice to the same guys--giving them 8s and 9s.