01.18.09
Cougar Parties
Photo from Wikipedia.
I just came across this article on a cougar and prey younger man meet-and-greet in Danville, California. This is my favorite part (emphasis added):
More than 100 guests looking for liaisons, if not love, paid $10 each to mingle at the East Bay’s first “Single Cougars Party”
I sort of admire cougars. Brazenly going after what they want, damn society’s norms. I don’t agree with Rich Gosse’s comment that it’s more conventional to be gay in San Francisco than it is to be a cougar — wait, actually I kind of do.
Digression: San Francisco can be weird that way. In most places, people are most tolerant of the people most like them. For those people, tolerance and similarity are directly proportionate: the more different someone is, the more difficult it is to be tolerant of them. In San Francisco, sometimes it feels like that works to a certain degree, then the equation flips around and it becomes inversely proportionate. Cross-dressing wiccan astronaut? Good for you! Older woman with a younger man? Deplorable!
But reading Paul Lee’s quotes gave me pause: this guy wants to date cougars so that he doesn’t have to grow up or be responsible. (Maybe he should check this out.) Then I realized that if he only dates cougars, he’s taking himself out of my and my friend’s dating pools. Have at ‘em, Paul!
A sidenote: A friend of mine used to go “cougar hunting” when he’d go to Monterey for surf trips. I need to find out more about this.
tom said,
January 20, 2009 at 11:11 am
I am 23 now and have been looking and searching in the cougar field for about a year or 2 now.
I think this whole cougar movement shows you how people are delusional.
I mean when you see an older men with a younger woman, he gets high five and praised, but when you see the opposite, it is like evil and wrong?
These meet and greets are awesome, i think we need more of them around.
Nicole said,
January 20, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Fascinating! Thanks for your comment. I’d disagree that an older man with a younger woman gets high fives. Well, guys might give him high fives, but women think, “Mid-life crisis.” But you’re right, it is more socially acceptable.
So what do you find appealing about dating cougars? Have you dated cougars or do you just want to? Seriously, no judgment here. I’m genuinely curious.
Annie said,
January 28, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I just was at a bar in San Carlos this weekend and they have a cougar party coming up. I thought of you. I was cracking up!