We’ve all seen them, we’ve all joked about them, and a lot of us ladies have secretly prayed we’ll never become one. I’m talking about cougars; the middle-aged, single or recently divorced woman, dressed to the nines and ready to take home young men as prey. They bait them with their sexual aggression and years of experience, and you can’t really blame a young guy for wanting to take home a hot old broad to show her what she’s been missing. But here’s the issue; while it’s normal to date outside our age bracket (eg. women dating older men), at what point does a women dating or sleeping with a younger man earn the title of a cougar?
Take for example this completely hypothetical situation...
As an intelligent, beautiful lady in her mid-twenty’s, X was working a summer abroad, spending each weekend working in a new city, where she would meet new people, and take on new adventures. At one particular job site, she met a young hottie named M, who at first she believed was at least 21. After spending days flirting and teasing one another, X was surprised and somewhat devastated to find out he was only 18, and fresh out of high school. Discouraged by the obvious age difference and the guilt associated with stealing a young man’s innocence, X denied the sexual tension growing between them, only to be pursued more aggressively by M. After a couple weeks of secret looks, hugs, and dirty text messages, X finally gave in to spending a night with M, and what a night it was!
There is an explosive difference between the guys our age who just want to get in, get out, and forget to call, and a teen (almost adult) who will do anything to please and impress the older girl he’s sleeping with. M made his way around X’s body like it was a forbidden temple, asking questions and willing to be trained and do things perfectly suited to X’s tastes. How amazing is that? A guy putting his own pleasure aside to say, “X, what makes you feel best? How can I make you scream?” The guilt of sleeping with M, so obviously young and innocent, was overpowered by the steamy sex and control X had in the situation.
When fellow workers began to find out about the love affair between X and M, names like ‘Cougar’ and ‘Cradle Robber’ began to fly around. At first concerned, X then realized that “ya, I crossed that boundary into cougar-hood, and it was well worth it!!”
So what it comes down to is this. While us girls in our 20-somethings like to make fun of the older ladies trying to pick up our guy friends at the bars, keep in mind that they know what they’re doing, they’ve been where we are, and realized that the younger the guy, the harder he’ll try to please you. The road to Cougar Town is nothing to be ashamed of, because lazy, selfish, middle-aged men just don’t make the cut anymore!
