Just Another Middle Age Woman Complaining About Double Standards

A few weeks ago on Sunday Morning, Nancy Giles gave commentary on the state of courgarism. I sat in rapt attention and shouted a few amens as she pointed out the terrible connotations associated with the term cougar. According to Ms. Giles, the term makes the older woman seem desperate due to the nature of the animal's hunting ability. Also, it is the only large cat that doesn't roar. Ms. Giles said it best with her comment, "I am woman, hear me purr?"

No, honey, we cannot roar if we are looking for companionship because that may scare the prey away.

Frankly, the media genius who came up with the term "cougar" should be placed in a jungle full of cougars with meat strapped around his neck. I agree with Ms. Giles, the term is a slap in the face for every single, independent woman over the age of 35. Instead of being admired for the lives being led, they are deemed desperate, needy, and less than worthy. The comparison is nothing new, and I am not the first nor the last to say this, but how dare women be portrayed as predators while men are celebrated for their ability to be fruitful and multiply. Hello, Michael Douglass.

I just read the New York Times wedding announcements, and several couples have a 7 to 25 year age difference with the man being the elder partner. There are no magazines analyzing these pairings and there are no gasps over coffee. It is considered the norm. If the woman was older, it would have been the lead story with her talking about finding love with a younger man.

Men age gracefully; women just age. We all have heard that. The woman's worth decreases with menopause, but the man can procreate until death. Hello, Tony Randall. In this age of enlightenment, does this mean we are so stilted in our own personal evolution, we still manage to cling to the caveman psychology that our only purpose on this earth is to procreate? An older man is still respected because he is not tied to a biological clock? I believe we are trapped by the Victorian notions even after the so called sexual revolution. The revolution may have led to promiscuity in college, but I believe it failed the collective body of womanhood, especially since the term "cougar" has been coined. It has turned the notion of mature women being valued into a joke.

Well, let's go with that joke for the moment: