According to a Newsweek cover story back in June, 2009 is the year of the Cougar. Perfect timing for ABC to premier Cougar Town , Courtney Cox’s new vehicle about a recently divorced, single mother and realtor dating and aging “in a beauty and youth obsessed culture”.
“Women who are with it date the young guy and then the old fossils date the older guys who are going to die on them,” says Author Rich Gosse and president of the Society of Single Professionals. The Society hosted the first Annual Cougar Convention in August and crowed 42-year-old Gloria Navarro, Miss Cougar America.
For those of you not in the know, a cougar is a women in her late 30s or 40s who dates younger men. Women like, Demi, Mariah, Susan and Halle get most of the press these days and according to Gosse, it’s not surprising.
“Supposedly every American male is only attracted to nubile 20 year olds found in the centerfolds of men’s magazines. The truth is that there are millions of American men who find older women attractive,” says Gosse who is organizing a Cougar Cruise with Carnival for December.
As a single woman, you either love the word cougar, or hate it. You might think it’s too predatory or it bugs you that there is no equal term for the men who have been “robbing the cradle” for decades. Player connotes something completely different and there isn’t a female equivalent for that. Maybe it’s cougar?
Personally, the word Cougar doesn’t bother me. I think attraction and love transcend boundaries of all kinds, including age. (And in most cases, the people who use cougar as a pejorative are threatened by women not afraid to do what society expects them to.) It’s the word cub that pushes me over the edge.
According to Gosse, cub is the term for the younger man. Supposedly it’s a movement away from bait or prey. When I think cub, I think son, child, offspring...
Ew.
Cougar Town airs tonight at 9:30/8:30c on ABC.
