In the decade since Valerie Gibson published Cougar: A Guide for Older Women Dating Younger Men, the very notion of older women dating younger men has gained acceptance in popular culture, in part, due to the emergence of high-profile women—such as Demi Moore, Katie Couric, and the fictional character Samantha Jones on Sex and the City—who have no qualms about dating younger partners. "There is a new archetype that's emerging," says Amy Luna Manderino, the reigning Miss Cougar International. "There have always been free-thinking, vital women over the age of 40. The difference today is our numbers have reached a critical mass." Christine Lehtonen, a principal at Asterix Group, a marketing and advertising agency in San Francisco, says there are more women in the U.S. aged 51 than any other single age.
The ideal cougar—a Manolo Blahnik-wearing fortysomething with a fabulous Manhattan loft, fabulous friends, and a fabulous sexual appetite for younger men—is actually a media construction. Bridget Brennan, chief executive officer of the marketing firm Female Factor in Chicago, attests that "cougar" is simply the label society assigns financially independent divorcées. "Because I'm over 40, I have this special name," says Manderino. "We don't give men special names when they're over 40 and they date younger women."
The greater cougar industry has expanded into books (Dating a Cougar, Hot Cougar Sex, A Christian Cougar), television (real-life cougar Courtney Cox's Cougar Town and the reality-TV show The Cougar), and even the big screen. Four decades after Anne Bancroft introduced American viewing audiences to the phenomenon in The Graduate, the recently released Cougar Hunting follows a band of young men to Aspen on a quest for older women. Denise Richards, the former wife of Charlie Sheen, will try to resurrect her career as the star of Cougars, Inc., out this month.
Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek, May 16, 2011
Valerie Gibson: Cougar: A Guide For Older Women Dating Younger Men
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