Did you think you were going to find people here that wouldn't also call you a creep? Consenting, legal adult or not, there are definitely a lot of factors that make an age gap of that large likely to have power imbalances: Life experience, wealth/independence levels, community connections and influence - Stuff like that adds up. Relationships with age gaps aren't inherently going to be imbalanced, nor are they doomed to failure. But the larger the age gap and overall younger the younger partner is, the more likely that there is some sort of imbalance. And people are going to read it one of two ways: Either you couldn't find a partner closer to your own age (which is concerning), or you deliberately sought out a partner than young (which would be predatory). So, yeah, that's how it's going to come off. And you whining about people pointing this out doesn't exactly do you any favours.

you are old enough to be her father. you are not in the same maturity or life stages bracket. yes legally she's a consenting adult, but compared to you she's still a child. you shouldn't be anywhere near her. this is creepy, and you should be shamed.

You're dating someone who's brain is still developing. The decision making centers of her brain are not all the way cooked yet. So she's more prone to making terrible, impulsive decisions. Like dating a ******* loser who is almost fifty years old and can't pull a woman close to his own age because no one with a fully developed brain will put up with his bullshit for longer than five minutes. Get your head out of your ass, you are absolutely a massive creep.

Her friends are right, dude, gross!

1/2 of marriages end in divorce. Sure that's a big age gap but it's not like standard marriage age gap range has a great track record anyway. I think the real risk your taking is when your 70 she will be 48. Good luck keeping up with her at that point, though I have seen it done.

Never younger than 1/2 your age plus 7. 31 is your minimum.

With Aaron Taylor-Johnson back in the public eye (for James Bond instead of Kraven the Hunter for some reason) people are discussing how weird it is that his wife is 23 years older than him, and they've been together over 10 years. The reason they haven't been driven apart from all the negativity is once he does a project, he dips for a bit and everyone forgets. You, however, are now in your girlfriend's friends' lives often, and it's a regular reminder that you're a creep. Age gap relationships can work, but you're obviously in a mid-life crisis and it wasn't that long ago that she was a child. Also, are you sure you're her boyfriend and not her sugar daddy?

Yep, definitely creepy