More Cougar Fallout

Came across this piece by Judith Warner in the NY Times--it's a tantalizingly vitriolic review, not only of Cox's new ABC vehicle, Cougar Town, but of the cougar phenomenon that is descending upon American culture. The occasional pseudo-feminist language of the show, for Warner, fails to mask its severe exaggeration of what society often deems as predictable female mid-life tendencies, among which, Warner notes, are "their fears of getting older, losing sexual power, ending up on the slag heap of social desirability." Most women, of course--especially the newly divorced or singles in cougar cohort--don't succumb to this fate. Warner's devastating final words say it best:

"It’s girls-gone-wild feminism for 40-somethings. It’s ridiculous and belittling and it stinks of another round of backlash. In the Cougar fantasy, in the figure of a woman who uses her younger mate to puff up her vanity and enhance her sense of power and control, you find all the most cartoonish aspects of boorish middle-aged masculinity. I’m sure we can generate better fantasies for ourselves."