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The Cougar Must Be Put Down

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 15, 2009 1:54 PM CDT

(Newser) – Rebecca Traister is fed up with the concept of the “cougar,” she writes for Salon. She doesn’t “hate the solitary wildcat who feasts on deer,” or “women who have sex with younger men. What I hate is the never-ending cutesy-pie conflation of the two.” The premier tonight of The Cougar, a dating show that matches a 40-year-old woman with men under 30, illustrates how profoundly unprogressive the stereotype is.

“Ah, liberation!” Traister writes. “Sweet, hot congress with dudes you were so glad you never had to deal with again after graduation!” The image of a sex-crazed older woman is taken from the male playbook, and it should have stayed there. “Cougars, as we portray and celebrate them, are mimicking the midlife crisis-penis-car-crippling-insecurity version of mature masculinity,” Traister writes. “Isn't this one thing we could have just walked away from without regret?”

[Images (2)]

[Videos (1)]

[Quotes (1)]

An actual cougar. (AP Photo)

Cougar, or attractive middle-aged woman? (Shutter Stock)

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Some ads for "The Cougar." (newrealitytv)

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When Cher used to date Rob Camilletti, I think they called him a "boy toy," and they called her "Cher." People fall in love. They couple. They are sometimes the same age, sometimes not. - Rebecca Traister

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(NEWSER) - The cougar trend is a myth—at least, that’s what one researcher wants you to believe. Cougars and cougar advocates everywhere, however, beg to differ. Michael Dunn recently released a study of 22,400 singles ads from dating websites, in which he found no “sizable cohort” of women looking for younger men, Time reports. (He also found that most men preferred younger, not older, women…but we already knew that .) More»

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