For a lot of men ages 20-30, their age isn’t perceptible at first glance. There is also a wide range of maturity levels/life experiences during this decade. So what *exactly* is it that women find “creepy” about a 30-ish yo man interacting with early-20s women?

This is a topic I see a lot on this sub and it confuses me for a few reasons. I’ve heard so many younger women state how weird it is to be approached by men in their 30s. But this doesn’t make sense to me because you often can’t gauge someone’s age at the first impression. I’ve noticed this to be especially true for men ages 25-30. Even in high school, we had the guys hit hard by puberty that looked like they were going on 30 by age 18. Conversely, you have the baby-faced men that are mistaken for 5-7 years younger than they actually are. So, it seems like we can rule out the “looks” aspect in regards to creepiness factor.

Secondly, there is a huge spectrum of maturity levels and life experience gaps between the ages of 20-30. Some men are primed for high-earning careers by the time they’re 23 and out of college, and some don’t lay down their vocational roots until they’re 30+. Some men have loads of life-experience, sexual and otherwise, in their early 20s, and some men don’t start their lives till later on. You can’t claim the “experience gap” argument either unless you actually get to know the person on a more personal level.

So what exactly is it that makes the scenario of the 30 year old man picking up the 23 year old woman “creepy” if his age and life experience cannot be initially determined by a brief interaction?