The two are closely interrelated. I really do fear that my ability to pursue desirable partners of my choice will become limited once I hit a certain age cap. And yes, I am pretty convinced that age differences like 30 and 21 would not matter to women if society did not socialize them to believe otherwise.

Something I should also note is that I believe that the age issue not only hinders our ability to connect with younger women, it even hinders our ability to connect with women our own age. The fact is, it is often very difficult to tell a 19 year old apart from a 24 year old or a 22 year old apart from a 28 year old or a 25 year old apart from a 33 year old. So when a 30 year old guy is expected to not pursue girls under 24 or so, he is really hindered from pursuing girls under 35 in general since many of them look like they could easily by younger than 24. Meanwhile for the boys under 24 or so, the world is their oyster. If they see a hot young looking 30 year old woman, they don't have to hesitate out of fear that she might be younger, because they would be allowed to approach her even if she was! I believe that this is actually serving to promote younger man older woman relationships while at the same time discouraging older man younger woman relationships. I really do find myself wondering if this is an intentional, strategic move by the powers that be.