Combat it how? By forcing young twinks to sleep with older silver daddies? I think the whole concept of ageism within dating (not just the gay community) is taken out of context. If it's on a personal matter it's more of a preference as in "I prefer to not date someone who was around to see the Hindenburg crash". Now if it's in a professional setting: work, school, library, department store and said person is being refused service/education/hours/resources/etc because of his or her age then yes that is a clear and present bias and is real ageism. Anything outside of that is really just a matter of preference and people really just need to get over the fact that just because you're old(er) and someone who is young(er) doesn't want to date/hook-up/whatever means is ageist, because it doesn't and it is an overplayed excuse that is already reeking of mold.
It's not about forcing people to do anything, I think it's about opening people up to all kinds of possibilities; dismissing their prejudice and experiencing everything that's out there. I don't think it's out of context, both the situations you described are quite similar; "people just really need to get over the idea that just because they're old(er) and companies who prefer someone young(er) don't want to hire them / promote them / whatever means they're ageist, because it doesn't ...".
After all, it's just the companies preference, right?
I think it flies under the radar compared to other issues like Race and Sex, still I think in any state an employer could handout a myriad of any given reasons as to why they fired a (insert age here) employee that would probably sound reasonable to the general public because they would not even have to consider age as part of the reason, just "corporate policy".
This is also similar, in my opinion. A person could hand out a myriad of any given reasons (being at a different stage of life / too mature or immature etc.) as to why they would shut off someone 10 years their senior / junior that would probably sound reasonable, because it's just "personal preference".
The circumstances you've described are very, very similar. It's just replacing "personal preference" with "corporate policy". Sure, there's no law against ageism in terms of relationships, but that doesn't mean people who dismiss others
purely because of their age aren't being ageist.
I think there's a fine line between personal preference and ageism/racism etc, and I think that line gets crossed when people make statements like;
"I would never date someone 10 years older/younger than me"
or
"I would never date a black/white/asian guy"
People are entitled to a preference, I'm not denying that. But when they close themselves off to people
entirely, purely because of their "preference", that's when they've crossed the line into racism/ageism etc.
