Fear of embarrassment is the dominant emotion of the young, particularly young men, in part because being in a position to be ridiculed also puts a young man in the position of possibly needing to either fight or back down from, either of which have a high probability of ending in further humiliation. Speaking as a former young man, I can tell you that for a twenty-something to approach a woman ten or twenty years older takes a lot more confidence and nerve than to approach someone your age or younger. And if the age gap is large enough, even success exposes him to the potential embarrassment of being seen as a boy-toy. Being a confident young man, I dated a woman in her forties when I was 26 and the boy-toy thing was definitely present. Her friends were kind, but clearly amused. There's a particular raised eyebrow, twinkling eye, and smile/smirk that I recall to this day. It can go two ways--a young guy can look like a real stud for having a woman like that on his arm, or he can look like her lap dog. One shades into the other pretty easily. It's like dating a woman taller than you. Some men look silly, and some men are envied, making others wonder what he's got. Not everyone can carry it off.