Leonardo DiCaprio, the Hollywood heartthrob, is at it, and has always been at it.
The moment is girlfriend turns 25, it's over, and it's time for the next woman to come along.
At first, the jokes were funny.
But as DiCaprio continues his pattern, the public finally understands it as his choice for being a man,
And later, the internet acknowledges it, but quite in a different way.
DiCaprio's reputation for dating models began in the early 1990s, shortly after his rise to fame in films like What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Titanic.
In his earlier years of being an Hollywood superstar, DiCaprio was linked to models like Bridget Hall and Naomi Campbell. While some reports suggest these were brief flings, the public started noticing a pattern.
Then, in the late 1889s and early 2000s, DiCaprio was seen having relationships with models like Kristen Zang and Gisele Bündchen, and his relationship with Bar Refaeli further drew attention to his preference for dating younger women.
This further solidified this 'dating women under 25 year old' image in the public eye.
By the mid-2000s, the internet had become a major platform for celebrity news, and at the time, people on the internet were no longer surprised to see and hear DiCaprio's dating life.
During those years, the names of his long list of girlfriends that are younger than him have became more widespread, with news and fans fueling the "Leo loves models" narrative.
In the 2010s, DiCaprio continued to be a topic of the internet's interest, especially with relationships involving models such as Toni Garrn, Kelly Rohrbach, and Nina Agdal, all of whom are significantly younger than him.
Then, in 2016 through 2017, jokes about DiCaprio's dating patterns began circulating more widely on the internet, cementing it as part of pop culture. In 2019, someone created a viral infographic charting DiCaprio’s relationships with women under 25 years old, further solidifying the public's fascination and scrutiny.
In the 2020s, DiCaprio's relationship with Camila Morrone, who is over 20 years younger than him, continued the trend and fueled ongoing discussions on social media.
While DiCaprio's choice is his choice, and that his choice is legal, like he's not dating girls under the age of consent, the internet is already full of men trying to date younger women.
Countless of website articles have been mentioning how men should date women in their age range, or this age range, or that age range, or never this age range. Social media is also full of such posts.
While some congratulate men for dating younger women, a lot of other people are calling these men "creeps."
If not caused by envy, the internet rarely hints of letting women do whatever they want.
The internet is like full of posts and articles about men seeking women, not women seeking men.
DiCaprio is actually not a rare breed.
While being rich and famous usually does wonders in the entertainment industry and beyond, to anyone who is DiCaprio's age or may be 10 years younger, DiCaprio is always likely be that man from Titanic.
For example, to some people, the character Batman in films could be anyone: a person may consider Batman as Christian Bale. For those who are older, it could be Michael Keaton, George Clooney, or Val Kilmer.
And to those who are younger, they may see Batman as Ben Affleck, or Robert Pattinson.
To Millennials and Generation X-ers, they still look DiCaprio as the star of their generations. But for Generation Z-ers, it's maybe unsettling to some of them to see themselves dating someone who is as old as their father.
Some people may like him or hate him.
It's just his status as a famous individual with a long list of films under his belt, and wealthy, and good looking, that made him 'pass' the 'creep' stage and into an role model, and something the internet to admire on, if not to meme.
As a result of this, those saying otherwise are the problem.
