Cougars and Culture

Media Meditation Number 6

I'm sure you've heard of ABC's new prime-time series "Cougar Town" starring ex-Friend, Courtney Cox. The sitcom follows the life of Jules Cobb, a 40-something divorcee living in a small town in Florida employed as a real estate agent, who "wants to relive her 20's by dating younger men." The show plays heavily on the reptilian brain, with a large portion of the plot being Cox's character trying to have sex. The limbic brain is also used, but in my opinion, the only emotions I experience when I saw this series is sadness that even in a series about older women, the basis of their value is placed on their physical beauty.

This television show exemplifies the gender double standard that we have in this country. At first glance, some may say that this series is a step forward for feminism. Women are "socially allowed" to be sexual beyond their twenties, and dating younger men is deemed acceptable. If there was a television show about a man "renewing his sexuality" after a divorce, how many episodes would run before it would be pulled for propitiating pedophilia, or statutory rape? Consider a line from the preview of the show " Go do disgusting things to that boy..." What if that said "Go do disgusting things to that little girl"? The FCC would be all over that.

The timing of this show is pretty convenient. Cougar fascination is off the charts. There are now dating sites, such as DateaCougar.com, Cougared.com and Urbancougar.com. This is not the first television series to attempt to cover the topic, TV Land premiered The Cougar a reality dating show, recently. CBS's jumped on the bandwagon and rolled out their own cougar show, Cougar Town.

Let's take a deeper look at this sitcom, starting with the title. An interesting blog I stumbled upon, Adventures of a Young Feminist, brought up a great point regarding the etymology of the word used to define these women who date younger men: cougars. Men who date younger women are referred to as bachelor's or playboys, both words with positive connotations. Cougar, on the other hand, implies "...that women are preying on and attacking young men where as men are congratulated for dating younger women." Just within the shows title, there is already evidence of the gender double standard. The LA Times had an interesting comment on the title as well, "the term (Cougar) is, at its root, a sexual pejorative; cougars may be sexy, but they carry with them a predatory air and the distinct whiff of desperation. Previous incarnations involved blowzy peignoirs and a bottle of gin -- in "Cougar Town," this has been updated to cocktails and implants."

And lets look at the cast as well. Courtney Cox at 45 years old does not look like your average mother of a teenager, "Cox is way too attractive to be quite believable as the character she plays." The beautiful people persuasive technique is definitely in play here. In a brief flashback to five years ago, we remember Cox as a 20-something member of the cast of "Friends." So she goes from 20 to 40 in just a few years? The reality construction of this show is a little off target. If the producers of this show are trying to pretend all divorced women looking for a renewed love life look like Cox, they are definitely peddling the big lie technique.

And if this is a release in the sexual limitations put on women, then what is up with the constant dissection of looks by the main character? The show establishes that it is in sync with the rest of the media world when "From the first scene of the series, where we find Jules pinching the loose skin on her elbow disapprovingly, all Jules can talk about is how hard it is not to look disgusting at her age." The show continues stereotypes that women are most concerned with their looks, and that it is important for them to keep up on these looks. The character Cox plays is in her 40's, defiantly old enough to realize that her looks are not going to be great forever, yet she consistently clings to her physical beauty as one of her only endearing qualities.

Look at the relationship between the mom (Cox) and her son, who is only seventeen, when she decides that she is going to date younger men. During a "successful sexual encounter for her in the pilot episode is undercut by humor as she's interrupted by her son..." Her son walks in on his mother having sex, and with a considerably younger men. What does this do to their mother son relationship? And how do cougars in general effect the sexual landscape that young men are dealing with? In the preview for the series, Cox's character asks her son to stay in with her and watch a movie, to which he responds "Are you hitting on me?" Even thinking that about your mother is a little strange if you ask me. What are the value messages we are sending to young viewers that might be watching this series? What are the value messages we are sending in general, by capitalizing on "the Cougar movement?"

The American Culture offered an interesting prospective on Cougar Town, and how it reflects the "sexual revolution" that is going on today. Cox's character "wants to do right while still having irresponsible fun, which is certainly a common contemporary point of view." Kind of a conundrum isn't it? Do right while having irresponsible fun-- is there such a thing? Doesn't being irresponsible (especially in sexual situations) usually lead to serious consequences? The series is "giving lip service to morality and reality while ultimately conveying a fantasy of sexual freedom without any seriously bad consequences."

While this show may attempt to play heavily on older women's nostalgia for the single, care-free days of their youth, I think it misses the point by creating an un-believable character. The writers are diverting attention from the truth of the situation of a divorcee in her 40's, whom the majority of don't look, or act, like Cox's character. I think the only humor in this series is the fact that Cox, a forty something in real life, hasn't said anything about the ridiculous actions of her character. Maybe the writers of this show should ask themselves some questions: Do I know anyone who really acts like this? Will women who are actually in this situation connect with these characters?

Television is "the most influential media innovation since the printing press" (146). There are serious repercussions in both society and culture based on what we put on television. If television is a "prevailing cultural center", what are series like Cougar Town saying about our culture (178)?