Photo Credit: "Lips" on Photobucket
We are living in “The Cougar Moment” according to Emily Nussbaum in this week’s New York magazine—but she implies that Courtney Cox might kill it as the insecure Jules in the dreadful sitcom “Cougar Town”. Now and then I write a Cougar post. Younger men love the posts—and sometimes ask for an “application form” to be my cub. Occasionally I hear from women who object to the term “cougar”, a word I embrace for the same reason lesbians and gays adopted “queer” and young black men “nigger”: When you own a word, it can’t define you.
This morning I received a delicious email from a 30 year old man extolling the joys of being with older women.
“I just realized something: It’s not only about the sex though you [Cougars] exude sexuality and kiss better than any girl. I love being with you because you are charming. You are flirtatious in a way that lets a guy know you could do just about anything he’s imagining—but probably won’t unless he really inspires you. He won’t get so much as a kiss, but he’ll go away feeling you appreciated him—something he probably won’t feel after he gets a blow job from a girl at the party. You are in control of who, when, where, what and how—but are open to being ravished by the right guy under the right circumstances…and it will be special…”
It gets a little personal from there—And, darling, I did enjoy the photos and fantasies.—but he makes his point in the first paragraph anyway: A lot of men are very attracted to grown-up women who have the self confidence to be charming and selective. Some of those men are younger than the stodgy segment of aging Boomers and the prematurely old faction of Gen X males. A woman doesn’t have to be Cougar age to be grown-up, of course, but many single women in their 20s and well into their 30s are as trapped in their Girl-land culture as many of the same age men are mired in Guyland. Dressed as Barbie Sluts and wobbling drunkenly on very high heels, they run in noisy packs on weekend nights in Manhattan and dominate L.A. 24/7. (Maybe everything began to go wrong when Barbie went from a fashion doll to a girl who can’t cover her butt in her little skirts.)
Why is it so hard to grow up in our culture without becoming “old”? Is it the dearth of role models? Samantha Jones, Cougar Extraordinare, as played by Kim Cattrail on “Sex and the City”, had the occasional qualm about aging but she both reviled in and defied the years. Jules in “Cougar Town” is terrified of what every passing day might do to disintegrate her Botox. (I agree with Emily Nussbaum: she is horrifying.)
Grown-up women are glamorous and sophisticated and sexy. When I was a child, little girls wanted to become women, not suspend time as lifelong teenagers, because women clearly had the secrets and the pleasures. I adored my big sisters who were 20 and 17 when I was born. Ellen especially was my concept of the ideal feminine with her curly dark hair, luscious red lips, elegant clothes and perfect nails. She held a martini glass like the cocktail was created for her. Her husband adored her too.
Grown-up women of all ages, let’s bring back glamour—and good kissing. More on kissing tomorrow after I go to a full body kiss workshop at Sexy Spirits tonight.






