One Cougars confession: “I can’t explain why, but I’ve always been attracted to younger men,” she said, pausing. “Without even knowing someone’s age, you can be sure I’m going to gravitate toward the younger guy. And I don’t know if it’s a function of I’m attracted to younger guys or younger guys are attracted to me. It’s just their energy, their enthusiasm” and—the biggie—“less baggage.”
According to one urban legend, there’s also the “half-your-age-plus-seven rule,” a mathematical formula for determining when a May-December pairing of either gender is considered to be within social norms.
Young men, of course, have their reasons for dating older women, too. “Cougar“ — conspiring feline on the prowl for young studs that it conjures: This sultry babe certainly exists but, ironically, it appears that it’s often the younger men who are the ones on the prowl, seeking partners who are confident, sexually experienced and relatively inhibition-free. Why should this surprise us?
For several years now, we have been seeing more and more older women looking for younger men. And…this term “Cougar”… Is it actually a fitting label to put on a older women dating men half their age? Surprisingly, women don’t mind it. In fact, they like it.
Just what is the definition of a “Cougar“?
It’s a woman, typically 35 or older, who is in a relationship with a man who is younger than her by eight to ten years or more. They are independent, sexy, wildly successful, classy, confident women that already possess many of the finer things in life. We can hardly call it a stigma. “Cougars“ — what dismissive words our society has found to describe older women who find themselves in romantic relationships with younger men. While the ideal example of an older man with a younger woman on his arm has been a constant in Western society, there has always been a double standard in the way we view the reverse gender pairing of older woman/younger man.
A whopping 34 percent of women over 40 are dating younger men, according to a 2003 survey. The same poll, which surveyed 3,500 single people (both women and men) aged 40 to 69 years old, found that 56 percent are currently separated or divorced from a spouse, 31 percent have never been married, and seven in 10 (74 percent) of formerly married singles in their 50s have been single for five years or more.
Ok, now you might be asking what is defined a “younger man“?
Also, referred to as a “Cub“, young men who are youthful, fit, not intimidated and of course sexually driven! These men can range from athletes to intellectuals, and from “techies” (or geeks) to entrepreneurs and all points in between; they can come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing they have in common is the desire to possess a sexually inspired older woman.
What’s the motive or reasoning behind older women looking for younger? Well…
It’s all rather simple, A “cougars” mentality of having a youthful person on your arm who makes you feel good, who makes you feel ageless, makes you feel desired and desirable is an attraction in itself. Younger men have been a natural fit for an energetic lifestyle that her male peers have never quite matched.
“These older women are confident, sexually mature, they don’t have inhibitions, they know what they like, and they know what they want,” said Nancy D. O’Reilly, clinical psychologist, researcher, author and host of Voice America’s radio program “Timeless Women Speak.” Cougars are independent, career-oriented women who have a been-there-done-that attitude towards marriage and “don’t need anyone to take care of them,” she said. “They’re looking for companionship, sexual contact, and someone good to talk to and spend time with. So be it if the relationship goes further.”
For the most part, older women do like the term “Cougar”. Even though it gives a visual of the leopard print clothes and prone to being dangerous, most women say they can live with it. Over all, widowed, separated, or divorced…there is definitely a growing number of older women seeking younger men to date and find companionship. And since men have been dating younger women for ages, why are so many of us surprised—shocked, even—that women would follow suit? Bottom line…Dating older women, is completely acceptable in today’s society.
I think most of us knows what a lesbian is or should we say “a woman who is sexually attracted to other women”. Although, if you have not, by definition a lesbian is: Lesbian is used to describe the relationships and activities of homosexual women, and the organizations or publications intended for them or created by them.
With that being said, “Has anyone ever heard of older women interested in dating younger women?”