'Sex' and the rise of Cougar Culture
The Detroit News
Queen Cougar, now your purr is everywhere.
As the second "Sex and the City" film approaches, opening Thursday, it seems time to reflect on the impact one of its characters -- Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall -- has had. In short, Samantha let the cat out of the bag.
That cat being the term "cougar," meaning an older woman who prefers to date younger men. Use of the term has variously been reviled as insulting and hailed as liberating; but without Samantha, whose preference for younger partners was central to the show during its television run from 1998 to 2004, cougar consciousness might never have risen.
Samantha broke the ground and soon enough Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) was having an affair with her lawn boy on the ABC-TV phenomenon "Desperate Housewives." Demi Moore married 15-years-younger Ashton Kutcher, and websites like therealcougarwoman.com began popping up, celebrating older women-younger men relationships.
Now there's a hit sitcom on ABC called "Cougar Town," starring Courteney Cox, as well as a reality show called "The Cougar" with Vivica A. Fox.
How common is the cougar phenomenon these days? ABC is reportedly considering changing the name of "Cougar Town" because the term is too passé.
Meanwhile, websites abound on Cougar Culture, celebrating the best cougar movies ever ("Class," "Risky Business," "Harold and Maude") and offering dating tips. Check out "The Cougar Café," part of the online magazine More (For Women of Style and Substance); these women are serious.
Samantha Jones was hardly the first older woman drawn to younger men -- the elder Mrs. Robinson seduced young Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate" and actor Tim Robbins had hooked up with 12-years-older actress Susan Sarandon a decade before "Sex and the City" aired.
But such romances were generally considered either plain odd or downright pathetic. The difference with Samantha was she was (and still is) having a blast! She was a powerful woman in charge of her life and getting what she wanted. And what she wanted was boy toys.
Now hardly anyone blinks when cougar hall-of-famer Madonna is reported to be dating a 22-year-old Brazilian model. Of course she is.
And why wouldn't she be? Proponents of the cougar-as-empowerment paradigm repeatedly point to the traditionally more accepted practice of older men dating much younger women.
Clint Eastwood, they say. Woody Allen. Warren Beatty. Good heavens, Mick Jagger.
The ongoing strength of this long-running double standard was driven home this past week when Google announced it was banning ads for cougar dating websites on the basis that they weren't family friendly, while still allowing ads for "sugar daddy" websites where older men court younger women.
Despite such sexism, the new century rise of Cougar Culture makes perfect sense, as does the positioning of Samantha Jones as its standard-bearer.
Baby-boomer Kim Cattrall is now 53, and her entire generation came of age in a youth-obsessed culture both liberated and thoroughly confused by the collision of feminism and the sexual revolution.
It is a generation marked by an adamant refusal to ever give in to "growing up." Its members can expect longer lives -- and thus longer sex lives -- than any generation before it.
And female boomers do indeed enjoy many more choices than their predecessors, even if the road to true equality between the sexes remains long. Who says one of those choices can't be a 26-year-old guy named Chad?
Of course, the work of Samantha Jones will only truly be done when the term cougar no longer matters and the roar of controversy subsides to a meow. That purrfect day, though, is likely far off.
Queen Cougar, now your purr is everywhere.
As the second "Sex and the City" film approaches, opening Thursday, it seems time to reflect on the impact one of its characters -- Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall -- has had. In short, Samantha let the cat out of the bag.
That cat being the term "cougar," meaning an older woman who prefers to date younger men. Use of the term has variously been reviled as insulting and hailed as liberating; but without Samantha, whose preference for younger partners was central to the show during its television run from 1998 to 2004, cougar consciousness might never have risen.
Samantha broke the ground and soon enough Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) was having an affair with her lawn boy on the ABC-TV phenomenon "Desperate Housewives." Demi Moore married 15-years-younger Ashton Kutcher, and websites like therealcougarwoman.com began popping up, celebrating older women-younger men relationships.
Now there's a hit sitcom on ABC called "Cougar Town," starring Courteney Cox, as well as a reality show called "The Cougar" with Vivica A. Fox.
How common is the cougar phenomenon these days? ABC is reportedly considering changing the name of "Cougar Town" because the term is too passé.
Meanwhile, websites abound on Cougar Culture, celebrating the best cougar movies ever ("Class," "Risky Business," "Harold and Maude") and offering dating tips. Check out "The Cougar Café," part of the online magazine More (For Women of Style and Substance); these women are serious.
Samantha Jones was hardly the first older woman drawn to younger men -- the elder Mrs. Robinson seduced young Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate" and actor Tim Robbins had hooked up with 12-years-older actress Susan Sarandon a decade before "Sex and the City" aired.
But such romances were generally considered either plain odd or downright pathetic. The difference with Samantha was she was (and still is) having a blast! She was a powerful woman in charge of her life and getting what she wanted. And what she wanted was boy toys.
Now hardly anyone blinks when cougar hall-of-famer Madonna is reported to be dating a 22-year-old Brazilian model. Of course she is.
And why wouldn't she be? Proponents of the cougar-as-empowerment paradigm repeatedly point to the traditionally more accepted practice of older men dating much younger women.
Clint Eastwood, they say. Woody Allen. Warren Beatty. Good heavens, Mick Jagger.
The ongoing strength of this long-running double standard was driven home this past week when Google announced it was banning ads for cougar dating websites on the basis that they weren't family friendly, while still allowing ads for "sugar daddy" websites where older men court younger women.
Despite such sexism, the new century rise of Cougar Culture makes perfect sense, as does the positioning of Samantha Jones as its standard-bearer.
Baby-boomer Kim Cattrall is now 53, and her entire generation came of age in a youth-obsessed culture both liberated and thoroughly confused by the collision of feminism and the sexual revolution.
It is a generation marked by an adamant refusal to ever give in to "growing up." Its members can expect longer lives -- and thus longer sex lives -- than any generation before it.
And female boomers do indeed enjoy many more choices than their predecessors, even if the road to true equality between the sexes remains long. Who says one of those choices can't be a 26-year-old guy named Chad?
Of course, the work of Samantha Jones will only truly be done when the term cougar no longer matters and the roar of controversy subsides to a meow. That purrfect day, though, is likely far off.
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