Tough Economic Times Are Great for Cougars, Divorcees, MILFs

After a a peak of interest surrounding older women dating younger men with the 1967 film The Graduate, cougar culture has, sadly, been on the decline. With women rushing to make themselves look younger via poisonous Botox injections, society adopting childish norms like Cuddle Parties, and tweeny-looking gals like Britney Spears soaking up the limelight, it's tough out there to be a woman over 40! However, there's a silver lining to every crappy economy, and a team of university eggheads report that a "mature" look for women is the new chic. From the NYT (h/t Wonkette):

The Environmental Security Hypothesis that he and his colleagues have been testing, positing that people look for reassurance in worrying times, also helped explain why Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Year in bad times tended to have a more mature appearance — that is, to be older, heavier, taller and less curvy — than those selected when times were good. Similarly, in a study of American movie stars from 1932 to 1955, he found actresses with mature features — small eyes, large chins, and thin faces — more popular in hard times.

With waves of jobless young men hitting the streets in hard times, this allows them to fall prey to the illustrious, fake-tanned cougar with promises of free food and a place to crash. The demographics of single women in the U.S. show an alarmingly higher percentage of older women to men, making the cougar's hunting ground that much more "target-rich". The website UrbanCougar.com offers advice for the ladies on how to sink your teeth in a younger man (colloquially referred to as a "Cub") for those interested.

For the bros out there looking at an empty wallet, the option of going "cougar" should not be ruled out categorically as the taboo that it once was, as dating an unemployed twentysomething girl who gets upset that you don't text her every 15 minutes might be a bad idea considering our current economic malaise.