No personal experience, but it's perfectly described by Rollo Tomassi and the red pill as a necessity for women to maximize their options in the drive to fulfill their sexual strategy and plays along with the feminine imperative. Shaming men into compliance to 'man up' and 'do the right thing' to wife up/marry the older woman instead of her younger, hotter, more fertile version. The women certainly know they can't compete with the younger versions and this frustrates them to no end knowing how fierce competition between women can be.
I'm sorry to hear that it destroyed friendships for you but it's really not your problem if they can't handle your choice in women. I'd see it as a compliment to my SMV and move on from such a narcissistic excuse of a woman. True friendship is not about judging and shaming each other.
Yeah I read Rollo's book a few years ago and recall reading that. It really helped me understand it and feel secure with my own choices in who I date. Especially since, when pressed, women can provide zero facts to support why it's "wrong". I know better than to argue with women, but due to how badly I've been impacted by this, I've gone ahead and debated a few women on it who tried to give me sh*t. None of them could justify it, and they also don't follow their own rules that they try to hold men to.
They won't shame a woman for being attracted to older men, yet they will shame the man for dating the woman. It's always the man's fault and the woman is always the "victim".
Some of the same women who criticize older men for dating younger women, date old men themselves!!!
Nowhere is it written and agreed to, what the "appropriate" age gap is. It changes with the wind, based on the given woman's personal situation.
As for my friendships - the issue is that in both cases, it was the GF of a close friend who had an issue with me (two different couples, two different girls). While I had ZERO problem telling their GFs I didn't give a F about their opinion, and I had zero problem ignoring them completely from that moment forward, it does create challenges in my social circle. And I have to take care not to bring any of my GFs around those women as they will try to sabotage. My current GF even tries to shame me for it, but I've drawn a very firm boundary with her about it and have dumped her twice over bringing it up after I told her not to.
It's just very frustrating. But yes I agree that true friendship is not about judging or shaming. The guys who are dating those two girls I mentioned above are both on my side of the topic - they were always my friends. The girls came along later.