Do not call me a cougar or any other animal, thank you very much

Do not, I repeat do not call me a cougar or any other animal thank you very much. And yes I know that the featured picture is a bear, not a cougar. Any toddler will verify that. And any toddler will verify that I am a woman or a lady (as I have been called by a certain four year old).

So why is it that grown people think that calling women cougars is appropriate. One of my friends thought it was okay to call me a cougar because he heard it from other women. He will never call me that again. Then he said that if I only date men four years younger than me I was fine. Of course I am fine. I am fine if I date men 20 years younger than me. It is not up to anyone to label me unless I am dating someone under age and that is a completely different conversation and terminology. Do we negatively label older men who date and sometimes marry much younger women?

Until today, I did not even know where the word originated. And let me say that I really do not care about its origin. I also do not care that other women use that term for themselves. I find it derogatory and I am not the only one.

Let me share what I found. The slang use of the term seems to have originated in Canada.  The urban dictionary defines it as an older woman who frequents clubs in order to score with a much younger man. And the writers in Wikipedia claim the term originated in Vancouver, British Columbia, as a put-down for older women who would go to bars and go home with whoever was left at the end of the night.

I assure you that I am neither of those definitions. And even if I were, that would be my business. I realize that there are shows like Cougar Town and Extreme Cougar Wives. Good for them. I still say do not call me a cougar. You do not call a bear a cougar and I deserve at least the same amount of respect.

 

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