For several years now, we have been seeing more and more older women seeking younger men. And… this term “Cougar”… is it really a proper label to put on an older woman who dates men half her age?

According to an urban legend, there is also the “half your age plus seven rule,” a mathematical formula for determining when a May-December couple of either gender is considered to be within social norms. cougar definition

It is a woman, usually 35 or older, who is in a relationship with a man who is eight or ten years younger than her. We can hardly call it a stigma. “Cougars”: what dismissive words our society has found to describe older women who are in romantic relationships with younger men. While the ideal example of an older man with a younger woman on his arm has been a constant in Western society, there has always been a double standard in the way we view the reverse gender pairing of older woman/younger man.

A staggering 34 percent of women over the age of 40 are dating younger men, according to a 2003 survey. The same survey, which surveyed 3,500 single people (both women and men) ages 40 to 69, found that the 56 percent are currently separated or divorced from their spouse, 31 percent have never been married, and seven in 10 (74 percent) of previously married single 50-year-olds have been single for five years or more.