Cougar (slang)
Cougar is a slang term that refers to a woman who seeks sexual relations with considerably younger men.[1][2] ABC News states that these women pursue sexual relations with people more than eight years younger than they are,[1] while The New York Times states that the women are over the age of 40 and aggressively pursue sexual relations with men in their 20s or 30s.[2] However, the term can also refer to any female who has a male partner much younger than herself, regardless of age or age difference.[3][4]
The origin of the word cougar as a slang term is debated, but it is thought to have originated in Western Canada and first appeared in print on the Canadian dating website Cougardate.com.[5] It has also been stated to have "originated in Vancouver, British Columbia, as a put-down for older women who would go to bars and go home with whoever was left at the end of the night."[1]
The cougar concept has been used in television shows, advertising, and film. The 2007 film Cougar Club was dedicated to the subject and, in spring 2009, TV Land aired a reality show called The Cougar. The 2009 sitcom Cougar Town originally explored the difficulty and stigma of many so-called "cougars." In The Graduate (1967), a middle-aged married mother pursues a much younger man (21 in the film).
The "cougar phenomenon"[6] as it is called, is frequently associated with present-day, glamorous celebrities such as Madonna, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Demi Moore.[7] However, it is documented that the trend of influential women dating younger men extends back a lot further through history to notable figures including Cleopatra, Catherine the Great and Elizabeth I.[8]
A 2010 British psychological study published in Evolution and Human Behavior asserted that men and women, in general, continue to follow traditional gender roles when searching for mates, and thus concluded that the "cougar" concept does not exist. The study found that most men preferred younger, physically attractive women, while most women, of any age, preferred successful, established men their age or older. The study found very few instances of older women pursuing much younger men and vice versa.[9] The study has been criticized, however, for limiting their results to online dating profiles, which are traditionally not used by those seeking older or younger partners, and for excluding the United States from the study.[10][11][12][13]
See also
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Look up cougar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Age disparity in sexual relationships
- Ageplay
- Ephebophilia
- Evolutionary psychology
- Jailbait
- MILF (slang)
- Phaedra complex
References
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- ↑ Alleyne, Richard, "The 'Cougar' concept: older women preying on younger men is a myth, claim scientists", The Telegraph, 19 August 2010
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