My views on cougar dating

Lazarus Sauti

Older women dating or marrying younger men is no longer looked with awe in Zimbabwe. I have seen many happy marriages between older women and young men. These relationships gave birth to the name cougar dating.  

Boy oh boy and girl oh girl (to be gender sensitive), even thought the society sees it fit to call these relationships with the name cougar dating, my gut feeling is that the name is very unkind and mean.

The reason is simply because when old men can date girls who are young enough to be their daughters, why cannot women do the same? Another reason is the question, “Who said an older woman cannot fall in love with a younger man?”

I believe love can happen to anyone at any time (prove me wrong). Even blogger Sarah Mellors agrees with yours truly and adds that love makes people do strange things. Because of love, older women can therefore date young men. Remember chikuru rudo.

Another reason is that not every woman wants a father figure. Often a man who is older assumes a protective and paternal role which is a major turn off to many women. Since many women like to take care of themselves and speak on their own behalf, they find their match in younger men and this is not a crime.

Men reach their sexual peak between the ages of 18 and 25 whereas women tend to reach their sexual peak mostly around ages 35-45. Because of this, older men mostly get less eager in bed with time whereas younger men are eager and more satisfying in bed and this triggers older women’s desires to date young men.

Was it not author Guy Kawasaki who once said, “Simple and to the point is always the best ways to get your point across.” To older women, dating younger men is simply to an effective way to prove that have the power to attract someone younger.

Double standards aside! If older men date young women to boost their ego, what’s wrong with older women doing so.

However, the reason why society despises the so called ‘cougar dating’ is that younger men are forbidden fruits. Therefore, society is not very encouraging when it comes to these relationships. Many people think that a woman who dates a younger man does so to easily manipulate him. But what the society tends to quickly forget is that it a theory that does not necessarily apply to every situation.