The predatory term 'cougar' is used to describe women who date men younger than themselves
Where do you stand in the cougar debate? Is a woman dating a man younger than her a new phenomenon, or is the media blowing it all out of proportion?
The tabloids and broadsheets have been awash with reports on ‘cougars’ – women who date men younger than themselves. It all started when a Parship survey revealed that 35% of women in their 40s, 50s and 60s would date a man at least five years younger – when five years ago the figure was just 8%.
Of course the papers have been citing all the usual celeb examples including 46-year-old Demi Moore who wed 31-year-old Ashton Kutcher in 2005; 76-year-old Joan Collins who is married to 44 year old Percy Gibson; 51 year old Madonna who is dating twenty-two year old model Jesus Luz, and 42 year old artist Sam Taylor-Wood who is engaged to nineteen-year-old Aaron Johnson.
But is the media blowing this all out of proportion? The five years mentioned is not an enormous age difference – and nothing like the age gap Madonna or Joan Collins are currently sporting – and they have been dating younger men for decades! What’s more, women generally outlive men by an average of four years so some sort of age gap like this actually makes sense.
Perhaps part of the media rip roar is that according to the survey, these cougars are actively seeking younger men for long-term relationships rather than a Mrs Robinson type of affair, with four out of ten of them saying they are looking for a lifelong partner, whilst 44% saying they would like steady romance. The new Courtney Cox sitcom that premiered in September in the US called Cougar Town adds fuel to fire for the predatory term ‘cougar’, and today there are reports that Demi Moore who was dubbed the original ‘cougar’ by the media has jokingly tried to rebrand it to puma via her Twitter page!
So what do you think? Is there anything extraordinary about a woman dating a man five years her junior? How about a man fifteen years her junior? Haven’t there always been men with penchant for older women – and haven’t men been marrying women ten or twenty years younger than them for centuries, if not millennia? And at the end of the day, is age irrelevant when you fall in love?
Let us know what you think on cougar debate by sharing your views in the comment box below.
Similar Posts:
- None Found
