Both are frowned upon. But in proportion to a society’s lack of sex equality, the relationship from the older to the younger when the older is the more empowered sex will be rightfully seen as more suspect. Whichever sex, in a given society, typically wields more advantage, power, wealth, etc. is by those same tokens more likely to abuse their advantages. All relationships with large age gaps are seen suspiciously since it typically means either (1) the older person is taking advantage of a naive younger person, or (2) the younger person truly is mature beyond their years. But when the older person is also a member of some group which is more likely to have advantages, whether that is the group of “business owner”, the group of “famous people”, or in most still-patriarchal societies today, the group of “men”, the fact that they have more advantages reasonably draws additional suspicion to the already suspicious age gap. For instance, we suspect that the older person is only with the younger person for their looks, and is using their money to make it “worth it” for the younger person; or we suspect that the older person is using their wisdom to deceive the younger person into feeling truly loved when in fact they are objectified, etc. These tropes commonly show up in the case of the older woman with the younger man as well, but notice when - usually if the woman is very wealthy and the man is someone very attractive and not wealthy, and so on. It’s the unequal standing of the younger vs the older that draws additional suspicion to the older.
So, this seemingly unequal treatment of men vs. women is not the result of some sort of bias or dislike for men (as some people may mistakenly interpret it) but in fact a rational response to the reality of the unequal standing of men and women in our society.
Both are frowned upon. But in proportion to a society’s lack of sex equality, the relationship from the older to the younger when the older is the more empowered sex will be rightfully seen as more suspect. Whichever sex, in a given society, typically wields more advantage, power, wealth, etc. is by those same tokens more likely to abuse their advantages. All relationships with large age gaps are seen suspiciously since it typically means either (1) the older person is taking advantage of a naive younger person, or (2) the younger person truly is mature beyond their years. But when the older person is also a member of some group which is more likely to have advantages, whether that is the group of “business owner”, the group of “famous people”, or in most still-patriarchal societies today, the group of “men”, the fact that they have more advantages reasonably draws additional suspicion to the already suspicious age gap. For instance, we suspect that the older person is only with the younger person for their looks, and is using their money to make it “worth it” for the younger person; or we suspect that the older person is using their wisdom to deceive the younger person into feeling truly loved when in fact they are objectified, etc. These tropes commonly show up in the case of the older woman with the younger man as well, but notice when - usually if the woman is very wealthy and the man is someone very attractive and not wealthy, and so on. It’s the unequal standing of the younger vs the older that draws additional suspicion to the older.
So, this seemingly unequal treatment of men vs. women is not the result of some sort of bias or dislike for men (as some people may mistakenly interpret it) but in fact a rational response to the reality of the unequal standing of men and women in our society.