NYMag says yes, in a genius piece of jumping to psuedo-scientific conclusions. Really, read it. If only most science writing were as honest.
Not quite as hilarious is the fact that a former, younger boyfriend sent me the article, with the joking implication that I am a cougar. Dude, I’m 25.
Interesting age-related trivia: Ann Bancroft (the legendary Mrs Robinson, in photo), was only 6 years older than Dustin Hoffman…
What happens when both parents are older? Do we cancel each other out or something?
what is with that picture? it looks like her leg ends just above her ankle, and then suddenly there is a foot?
and also, I really hate the word “cougar.” what a terrible thing to call a woman.
I’ve read that the leg was a model’s, not Ann Bancrofts’s.
I’d wonder if this is because women who have the choice to marry and/or have children later tend to be more highly educated and/or from a higher rung on the socioeconomic ladder? People with lots of education tend to value it for their own kids, and people who are more well off tend to oh so coincidentally have “smarter” children. I would also guess that “older” mothers are more likely to have consciously made the choice to reproduce, which could translate to mothers who are more deeply invested in things like educational opportunity (or maybe just more likely to have their kid IQ tested).
There you go, Opoponax. Acting as though there might be confounding variables in such a study! You communist, you.
and also, I really hate the word “cougar.”
I think it may initially have started as a sort of compliment (cougars are cool, in control, sleek…) but since the term was applies to old women, of course, it immediately became an insult.
You’re right, Medea. The leg in the movie poster for “The Graduate” belonged to model/actress Linda Gray who later achieved fame as Sue Ellen, JR’s long suffering wife, in “Dallas.”
Strange — it struck me as a send-up of psuedo-science.
I actually found it pretty amusing.
I did, too. But I just had to go and give the knee jerk disclaimer.
Of course, the only chance of an older woman getting a younger man is if she is as beautiful as Anne Bancroft. For we all know men only care about looks (rolls eyes.) Not that I’m attacking you, rather the idea that women only want money and men only want looks, which always crops up in articles of this kind, with everyone astonished that a woman over 40 could still have a love life.
It is a send-up of psudeo-science. I was being serious when I said that I wished most “science” writing were as honest about jumping to conclusions that confirmed the writer’s own biases and wishes.
As the wonderful I, Asshole says, Not a Girl, Nor Yet a Cougar.
Helen… Ha. Girl… you’re going to be a cougar soon…
Helen… Ha. Girl… you’re going to be a cougar soon…
OH! You’re my new favorite blogger fyi
Actually, I’m married to a “cougar” and we have a really, really smart daughter (I’m a college professor, she’s three and a half and sometimes she outsmarts me). I guess according to the pseudo-science crowd, this proves the case about cougar-motherhood?
Um … but … our daughter is adopted. Her bio-mom’s a teen mother.
Anyway … let me (I think I’ve kept count) third what The Opoponax said.
… And they were no longer little girls, they were Little Cougars.
Pseudo-science indeed. For a moment before I scrolled down to the picture, I thought this post would be about the actual animal. Like a cougar. Yeah, no.
GEE maybe its because the more educated a woman is the longer she will wait to have children (on average). Its just not as fun for the media to come up with plausible sounding explanations when its not the ‘sexy’ answer.
damn, I guess this means the youngster and I should up and breed some little’uns, since they’ll be smart and all.
Surely the logical pseudo-scientific conclusion would be that older women who are savvy enough to pick hot young partners (rather than settling for some lumpen patriarch their own age) are going to pass them street smarts on to their progeny?
I just turned 25 on Wednesday (March 18).
I thought “cougars” are women who are 40 or older.