I was just reading an Associated Press article, "’Cougars 4 Cook’ sign was our first clue," and three things struck me: (1) Some women are embracing the term cougar. Why? (2) Our own Michael Slezak is quoted in the discussion of American Idol winner David Cook’s (pictured) unexpected sex appeal: "Getting that side-part during Dolly Parton week was possibly his best strategic move of the season, even more so than his rearrangement of ‘Always Be My Baby.’" (3) I am apparently the only woman over 30 who doesn’t want a bite of Cookie. Linda Sharp, a 42-year-old blogger, voted 473 times for Cook Tuesday night. "The biggest thing: He’s legal, and that goes a long way," Sharp said. "He’s 25. That’s old enough that we canopenly ogle him, and we can drool over him, and it doesn’t make us feellike we could be his mother." She went on to explain how her courtship with Cook climaxed in that admittedly tasty underwear Guitar Hero commercial: "We’re the ones that salivated so heavily over Tom Cruisein Risky Business that he really slid to superstardom on a trail ofour spittle… So to see David Cook — who we’re firmly inlove with — put into those two things… I mean, it was just a gift.It was a present."
How do you feel about the term cougar, in a post-Age of Love world? And if you prefer your idols to be of a certain age (50+), be sure to check our gallery of GILFy pleasures (in honor of Harrison Ford’s return as Indy). I extol the hotness of Kevin Costner and Anthony Stewart Head. (Now, this is how you do a tasty commercial, son.)
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I’m married to a woman nearly ten years my senior (yet she looks younger than me), and she HATES the term Cougar.
Ironically, I happen to love it. Seriously, what’s wrong with the term? Cougars are strong willed, sleek animals who know how to hunt what they want. If the term for a sexy older woman was something insulting like “hot mom”, “well aged” or the overused (and demeaning) “MILF”, the resistance to the term would make more sense to me.
Even the word Cougar’s kind of sexy. I hear that term and it instantly conjures up images of a woman who looks 20 but has the experience of 40. As Paris Hilton would say “that’s hot”.
Hate the term… will not accept it… ICK!
Hate the term, but do have an inappropriate crush on the boy…and am a girlie despite the online moniker.
The term is hands down better than MILF. It’s been forty years since The Graduate …long before I was born, but I think of them as Mrs Robinsons.
If it’s good enough for 30 Rock, it’s good enough for me.
Jenna: Oh go for it Liz! I always roll with it when hot guys think I’m 22. What can we do, we’re cougars.
Liz: We’re what?
Jenna: Cougars – hot older ladies pouncing on their young prey.
Liz: [grossed out] Ehh.
Jenna: There was a whole article about it in Vanity Fair, the one with the ‘Crisis in Africa’ cover. God it makes me so sad more people don’t know about cougars.
I hate the term, but if that’s what they’re calling it, I’M ONE OF THEM!. I’m 36 and I would love to take a bite out of David Cook. SO HOT!!!!
I’m 36 next month and definitely love my Sugar Cookie. He’s just precious and is the right blend of grown man and that little-boy vulnerability. Be still my beating heart! (And yes, I mass-voted and forum-posted and now realize that Simon totally played us with reverse psychology, but it’s ok. Use me, abuse me — it was a labor of love!)
Not a fan of the term, but I will cop to being 37 and will confess not only to have voted for him a 100 times, that is voice and 5 0′clock shadow make me all mushy inside and give me inappropriate thoughts and that I watched his Guitar Hero commerical over and over again….all of which isn’t wrong of me per say as I am sure that I am not alone. Does it make me a cougar? I don’t think so as i would probably never sexually stalk him instead I would probably just giggle like a nervous schoolgirl.
But let it not be misconstrued that we are saying we voted on his charm alone; we LOVE his genre of music and the way he plays it. He’s got talent in droves to match his good looks, and THAT’S why he won — he’s the total package.
Ew.
Ew??? Well I know we all look at Demi and Ashton and huff “Oh how could you, Demi, he’s almost young enough for your daughters, ugh…” And then it happens to you, and you go, “Oh. Now I get it!” :0)
Well, I’m barely old enough to be a cougar. I’m only 4 years older then Mr. Cook who is about the same age as my husband. However, I don’t mind the term but I do like Mrs. Robinson better. I hate MILF even though my hubby calls me that sometimes.
What is MILF? (Is it mentionable here spelled out?) I saw The Graduate, but I don’t remember that term, and when I Google it I get Moro Islamic Liberation Front, oops…
i will say it’s better than milf but really, who cares about someone’s opinion especially if you don’t even know them?? live your life, be happy, & blow the judgers.
You don’t have to be a ‘cougar’ to want a piece of David Cook.
Yes, I daresay he will play to packed houses of women of all ages.
Ew, Cook’s only 25? (I don’t watch American Idol, obviously- but it’s hard to avoid all of the coverage.) He seriously looks 40 to me, though I guess that would be over the age limit of AI (there is one, right?).
I think it’s one thing to say he’s a nice looking guy, but when people who are old enough to be his mother say they would like to rip his clothes off and have their way with him it’s just plain wrong!
Yup, two years ago if you claimed you thought Katharine McPhee was beautiful, we were “pigs” and “didn’t understand that AI was about singing, not looks!” and Kat was trashed mercilessly. But somehow, it’s OK that Cook won because “he’s hot.”
Double standards abound…
In order to be a MILF, don’t you have to be a mother? Cougar is a much better, saucier, all-encompassing term.
vw: blow the judgers? Is that an argument AGAINST judging?
BoiseJen: Mothers I’d Like to F***
I don’t think he looks 40 so much as he emotes that sort of quiet introspection that you get when you reach your mid-to-late 30s.
It sounds so predatory which, I guess, is the point. I’m in my early 30s and I thought it was for 40 and up. (When I hit 40 I’ll think it’s for 50 and up);) I guess it’s better than ’skeezy old guy’ that we give to men. But I really dislike cougar, even though it could be ’skeezy old woman’. As far as attraction to people younger than you, some of it is fantasy and hormones. You’re not necessarily going to act on it. But then again, you’re older, not dead so why not act on it if the other person is open to it? Personally, I’m not attracted to Mr. Cook even though I voted for him. It was his music, not his looks that got the votes. But I have to admit (why?) that I did place a few votes for Mr. Castro because he’s so pretty (and the music). But I’m not interested in a relationship with him. The 14 year old in me is, but she doesn’t run the show anymore. I think men get more interesting in their late 20s, before that, not so much.
Please don’t use ugly words like that. What I meant was you wonder what a woman sees in a somewhat younger (I’m not talking Mary Kay Letourneau here!) guy, and then you run across one that makes you think, “Gee, wish I were 25 again, with my life ahead of me still, before all the choices I’ve made.” Having a romantic notion about someone and using the F word are two entirely different things, Brandon.
Oh, Brandon, now I see, sorry — you were just defining the abbreviation for me. Duh.
Hey BoiseJen…Brandon was just telling you what MILF meant.
Yeah after gasping out my response e-mail, I realized that. One of the sure signs of NOT being 25 anymore — slow synapses.
I find the term couger hilarious, but maybe that’s because I’m only 22 and don’t fall into the category when it comes to David Cook.
I’d say the ultimate MILF is Nancy on Weeds. Hence the “product” named after her. And though my husband is a few years younger then me I’m usually attracted to much older men, Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland and Charlie Rose to name a few.
I’m chagrined to say it, but I’m firmly in the “I’m a 43 YO happily married mom who would love to get a piece of Cook” camp. Not so sure about the term ‘cougar’ tho – it does imply predatory. I’m sure there are plenty of those out there, but for the vast majority of us it seems to come more from wanting to reclaim our youth as anything else. Men go through their mid-life crises, dumping the wife for a younger woman is a cliche. It’s not so strange to think that older women have those urges too, we just don’t act on them as often. Youth is wasted on the young, indeed. I wish I knew in my 20’s what I know now, had the confidence, focus, etc. It’s the fantasy of being able to transfer our fully developed selves back into a tighter more resilient body. Cool concept. Anyway, Cook’s the perfect inspiration – multi-faceted, easy-going, smart, slightly wacky, hot, with a smile that lights up the world. Wanting to get next to that is natural, but to view him as a target? No, not a cougar.