To her shock and bemusement, there was a new term to describe what she had been doing most of her life — dating younger men. Wheeler, a fiery redhead who lives outside Baltimore, leaned back in her chair and sighed. I was a cougar before there were cougars. She listed a string of young men with whom she had various relationships, occasionally punching numbers into a calculator to determine age differences she had never considered in the first place. For Wheeler and other women like her, younger men — many of them 15 years or more their juniors — are a natural fit. Widowed, separated, or divorced, a growing number seek young men for dating and companionship. And since men have been dating younger women for ages, why are so many of us surprised — shocked, even — that women would follow suit? Confessions of a Cougar Valerie Gibson, author of Cougar: A Guide for Older Women Dating Younger Men, is all too familiar with this double standard. They were absolutely horrified that older women should be having. These days, real-life cougars are stars like Demi Moore who, in her 40s, married then-twenty-something heartthrob Ashton Kutcher , the coiffed reality-show cast of The Real Housewives of Orange County, and, yes, everyday women — suburbanites and city-slickers alike. A 70-year-old woman going out with a 40-year-old guy is considered creepy. All scientific notions aside, older women opt for younger men for the same reasons that. A whopping 34 percent of women over 40 are dating younger men, according to a 2003 survey. The same poll, which surveyed 3,500 single people both women and men aged 40 to 69 years old, found that 56 percent are currently separated or divorced from a spouse, 31 percent have never been married, and seven in 10 74 percent of formerly married singles in their 50s have been single for five years or more. More Fun, Less 'Baggage' For Wheeler, younger men have been a natural fit for an energetic lifestyle that her male peers have never quite matched. That and music, of course. And being stuck in the music they listened to in college. Men, of course, have their reasons for , too. The 27-year-old works in L. So be it if the relationship goes further. After all, she has worked hard for it, with ample sessions of yoga, calculated vitamin concoctions, a good diet, and even a little Botox here and there. I use it now. Once you confirm that subscription, you will regularly receive communications related to AARP volunteering. In the meantime, please feel free to search for ways to make a difference in your community at.
