Russell Simmons demonstrates silverbacking

I'm way backed up on my silverback reports (and I have several news items that I should have commented on regarding that).  If one will remember, I term the older man - younger woman matchups, as wives or girlfriends, "silverback" relationships, after the appearance of alpha male gorillas.  Now, more appropriately or perhaps more accurately, such relationships could be termed "alpha male" relationships. 

To review, the basic biological underpinnings of this kind of relationship are that the dominant males of a species get to mate with the most fertile/desirable females (and in some cases, ALL of them).  You could  call the males herd bulls or alpha wolves or pride lion or leader of the pack.  The position is competitive (and stressful), frequently determined in nature by either real or ceremonial combat. 

In human societies, mating with a harem is somewhat frowned upon, but highly compensated professional athletes sometimes evince a similarity to this behavior.  But the silverback relationship is clearly between a successful (usually = wealthy) male, frequently an older male possessing requisite demonstrations of his success, and a considerably younger and highly attractive female.  As we have seen, silverbacks also commonly release an earlier mate from their mating and marital and childbearing obligations, and move on to have progeny with a younger woman (sometimes several).   It must also be pointed out that frequently the silverback is not nearly as attractive as the younger woman.  This can be partly attributed to age and also to the fact that in this particular relationship mode, sexual attractiveness is less determined by physical characteristics and more by the ability to provide stability and resources
for successful offspring rearing and thus survival of the genes.    (Somewhere in my files I've got the article about marital happiness that I was going to write about, to whit, that in the most stable marital relationships, the woman is usually younger and prettier than the man.  I'll dig that up.)

The Leonardo DiCaprio / George Clooney variant silverback behavior does not include marriage or
children.

So, to get started on my review, I offer up Russell Simmons and girlfriend Hana Nitsche.  Russell is a rich music producer, already has a child and isn't exactly svelte.  On the other hand, Hana is svelte, stacked, and not afraid to demonstrate both.  The article shows the daring dress she wore to Russell's charity event;  Google image searching provides a couple of other examples:

Demonstrating the difference