How to deal with an insecure boyfriend?

[Rachel S]

I've been seeing a guy for three months who is several years younger than me. I'm 32 and he's 24. We get along great despite the age difference, however an issue has come up and it seems that he is really insecure. He will ask me about pictures on my facebook where a guy friend has an arm around my shoulder, usually in group pics with other people. He thinks I'm texting these guys just because I'm in pictures with them.

He says he trusts me, but it's my guy friends that he doesn't trust and he doesn't want them touching me whatsoever. They don't! An arm around a shoulder to say hi, seems normal to me? He says it shouldn't be happening at all and next time it does, he walks. I feel quite smothered by it and I don't know what to do. I tried explaining to him that he is overreacting, he says my friends act like idiots and are rude because of these things. Everytime someone texts me he asks who it is, but claims it's not because he wants to know if it's a boy or not.

I'm not running around trying to have my guy friends touch me, but if one has an arm around me I don't see why it's a need to cause such grief and stress for both of us. He told me he thinks it's fine to hug a girl-friend, but that it's not fine for a guy to have an arm around my shoulder for 4 seconds? This argument has blown up into more and now we are not talking. He wants to reserve the right to call my friends rude, and I told him fine but I won't agree with him necessarily...which pissed him off because he thinks I should support him no matter what, 100%. I'm thinking he shouldn't be calling friends rude when he's only known them for five minutes.

This is long winded but I just don't know if I should nip this in the bud now, or try and be more patient and understanding. He has expresed that his ex was a bit of a s-l-u-t in front of him on a regular basis, but still.
*Edit* I certainly can, Eric. Can't you distinguish between "your" and "you're"?

[Eric]

Can't you find a guy you're own age?

[perfectvelvet]

You're not his ex; he shouldn't be punishing you for something they did.

I'd tell him "you either accept me for who I am or you don't." If he can't accept that the COMMON pose in photographs with friends is an arm around you, be you two guys, two girls, or a guy and a girl, he's apparently never had a picture taken of himself.