That Cougar is still seen as a cute pet name, for female predators.

[Mr Slugger]

See I somewhat see the double standard. Men who go after the "barely legal" crowd are deemed as perverts, etc. While cougars are almost praised.

I think the difference really is younger women typically are looking for love, romance, marriage, etc. And older men usually want them as play things, and will tell younger women what they want to hear to make them play things.

Whereas old women want a sex toy, and most younger males want to be a sex toy.

[Boozy]

I wish I could ask a random selection of 18 year-old males how they would feel if Courtney Cox flashed them.

Somehow I don't think "I would need therapy" would finish high on the list of responses.

[the_std]

Gee, imagine that, a fictional character on a TV show doing something controversial? Say it ain't so. I am going to base all of my opinions on the topic around the kind of person she portrays!

You might want to be a little more specific about what kind of teenaged boy you're talking about here. 18 and 19 are teenagers, but that's still completely legal. And of course you're going to get some people who step over the lines, or into the zone of statutory rape, but the majority of cougars go for young dudes who are legal, not underage boys. It's like saying that all pedophiles have sex with children - not true.

[IDrinkaRum]

Some Cougars might go after willing college-aged guys. However, how about like Courtney Cox's character who is flashing a teenage boy? That is not right. at. all.

I'm not saying all Cougars are like that, but some are not so discriminating. They'll go after anything male that shows a little interest in them.

Not pedophilia most definitely, but what would be the correct term then?

[BroomJockey]

Pedophiles are pedophiles, male or female.

And yet cougars aren't paedophiles. Or even ephebophiles. They're not even predators. They just have sex with willing college-aged guys.

[blas87]

This is totally bassackwards.

Dirty old men have been after little spring chickens for years and years and years. Hundreds of years ago, a man in his 30s would marry a girl who was in her early teens and she'd bear his children.

Although times have certainly changed, it's still not uncommon to see a middle aged man or a man several years older than girl that he's with. A lot of times, it's because he has money, other times it's real and geniune......but I digress.

Pedophiles are pedophiles, male or female.

By the way, a Dingo is the cute pet name for older men who like younger women, so no, Cougar is not that degrading.

[MaggieTheCat]

I'd never heard the term "cougar" for a woman before, so I threw it into wikipedia:

"Cougar—a woman over 40[9] who sexually pursues younger men, typically more than eight years her junior.[10] The term appears to have been coined by Canadian website Cougardate.com[11] and has been used in TV series, advertising and film. The 2007 film Cougar Club was dedicated to the subject and in Spring 2009 TV Land aired a reality show called The Cougar. A new show called Cougar Town, explores the difficulty and stigma of many so-called "Cougars"."

And from what I read about the pilot episode of the series, the main character (Courtney Cox) is recently divorced and notices how many older guys are getting younger (college-age) girls and she is finally convinced by a friend of hers to date a younger guy.

Some of the stuff on cougardate.com is a little unsettling: "The most successful cougars are those that married well and got huge divorce settlements." However, I didn't see anything about the term "cougar" or the show where the women are actually forcing themselves on younger guys, as in raping them. Cox's character does flash a HS student in the pilot to try and prove that she's still sexy, though.

[Greenday]

Most cougars aren't pedophiles. They are generally just older women who like younger men. Like if I hooked up with a 40 year old woman right now while I'm 21. That's what a cougar really is.

[gremcint]

I don't know about the show but cougar usually means a woman who is at least 40 going after someone that is at least 20 years younger. A lot of them only go for those that are above age and aren't rapists. I may be off on the numbers but that is what a cougar generally is, they don't automatically go after underage men and they don't necessarily force themselves on people.

[IDrinkaRum]

Cougartown, from what I understand, is about older women dreaming of getting it on with the teenaged friends/maybe early 20's of their own kids. (Did that make sense?)

I saw a couple of the first minutes of the premiere. Courtney Cox's character is saying how she'd like to do something sexy with one of the teenage runners (she was a sport's event). The woman in front of her turned around and said "That's my son." She was embarrassed by it, but then, she lowered her voice was a like "I'd still like to do something with him."

[Boozy]

Let me get this straight: Are you saying this show called "Cougartown" is about a pack of female rapists?

[violetyoshi]

They were discussing on Showbiz Tonight, if Cougar is demeaning to women. I mean seriously, we're giving them a little pet name instead of calling them rapists, and they're offended?

They have this show called Cougartown, now would we accept a show that is a fantasy of grown men wanting to rape little girls? No, but if it's a beautiful woman raping teenage boys, aww isn't that adorable?

I'm tired of this misogynistic view, that women should be treated like hapless idiots. She can't keep it in her pants around teenage boys, that should be a crime, not garner a "Poor pretty baby.."

I also think it's SICK that people will suggest a teenage boy is lucky, if he's RAPED by a beautiful woman. It's the same type of violation that happens to a women when she gets raped.

I nearly puked seeing these disgusting whores, flash teenage boys in Cougartown. Will it ever be safe for men to express their feelings through something besides anger? Or for them to feel greif when they've been RAPED instead of being told they should be greatful?