Yes, people infantilize young women but also young men. I have seen both men and women who are the older person in age gap relationships get equal hate and bullied equally despite dating consenting adults.

Aside from baselessly accusing the older person of being a predator solely based on the age gap, they also say things like “it’s icky” “it’s weird” etc. and therefore immoral. If we were to apply “if it’s icky to people outside the relationship then it’s immoral” to every relationship then that would include gay relationships since it’s “icky” to homophobes. This way of thinking is so disgusting and bigoted. People are generally afraid of anything that isn’t the social norm. Years back hating on gay people was the social norm and therefore gay relationships were considered immoral solely because it’s “icky” to them. Now hating on age gap relationships is the norm so people consider age gap relationship as immoral solely because it’s “icky” to them.

So how do they keep society as it is and prevent it’s normalized ideologies from being challenged and changed? Shaming, lots of shaming. The same way they used to call gay people slurs, now solely based on their age they call older people in age gap relationships with adults predators, creepy old man, creepy old woman, they even call them the p word, despite the fact that sexual attraction to adults is not what the p word is. (I couldn’t type the p word because it’s banned from this sub, which further proves my point since it’s been used against older people in age gap relationships with adults so often to the point mods had to ban the word from this sub)

People always need a group of people to hate on so that they can feel superior, so they’ll pick whatever group of people it is normalized to hate on in their current time.