The Rise of the Cougar
April 24, 2009 by Aly Walansky
Filed under Relationships
Would you date a younger man?
Apparently, snagging a younger man is the latest trend, on-screen and off. Vivica Fox has the new show actually called “The Cougar”, and Courtney Cox is about to star in “Cougarland”.
And we won’t even start with the Demi/Ashton thing.
I just got an email about a survey SpeedDate.com did on the trend. The results were really interesting!
What is an acceptable age gap between an older woman dating a younger man?
- 45% said 0 – 5 years; 38% said 5 – 10 years; 17% said 10 + years
Men were asked if they’d ever had a relationship with a “cougar”
- 27% said Yes; 73% said No
If no, would you ever date a “cougar?”
- 56% said Yes; 44% said No
If yes, do you prefer to date older women rather than women that are more your age?
- 33% said Yes; 67% said No
Women were asked if they’d ever been in a relationship where they were the “cougar”
- 35% said Yes; 65% said No
If no, would you ever date a man much younger than you?
- 43% said Yes; 57% said No
If yes, do you prefer to date younger men rather than older men your age?
- 23% said Yes; 77% said No
Where do you stand on these stats???
Image: Sxc.hu
Honestly, the whole conversation–not yours in particular, just the whole idea that this is somehow so titillating to people–is more than a tad offensive to me. Throughout my life women have fought to be taken seriously and one very big issue has been with sexuality. We are *finally* at a point where we can accept women as sexual beings without having to label them “tramps” or “sluts” and suddenly we have this whole “cougar” stigma??? Can you say “double standard”?
I dunno’. The whole conversation just seems to further trivialize women’s issues and trivialize women who are in lasting, committed relationships with men who are a few years younger. (I’m not, if anyone is wondering.) It just feels incredibly sophomoric to me.