WHAT IS A COUGAR?
A Cougar is a woman who enjoys dating (and sometimes marrying) younger men. She can be of any age. Young cougars “in training” are often referred to as KITTENS in their twenties and PUMAS in their thirties. At 40 a woman becomes a full-fledged Cougar. At 60 she becomes a PANTHER.
ISN’T THE TERM COUGAR OFFENSIVE?
Some women who appreciate younger men object to the term Cougar. They are unhappy with the predatory connotation of the word. However, for better or worse, the news media is obsessed with the word Cougar. Prior to the invention of the term Cougar, I used to produce “Younger Men/Older Women” parties. The news media had very little interest. Then we changed the name of “Cougar” parties and the news media has done hundreds of features about our events and the entire Cougar Phenomena. In other words, the term Cougar sells. My goal as a singles educator is to educate MidLife women that it is imperative that they choose younger rather than older men. The word Cougar and subsequent media hype meets that goal.
