By Myrriah Gossett
Some people might be avid followers or fans of the new Television show “Cougarville”. This show, which I have only watched a few times, is based off of a real place, Sarasota, Fla., where middle-aged women, cougars, are on the hunt for much younger men.
I grew up just south of Sarasota in a smaller, less cougar-filled town. What does get me, however, is how this lifestyle has become so acceptable to some, but still hard to deal with for others, including me.
My mom works in Sarasota, and usually hangs out there with her friends all of whom are of the age that could be considered cougars. My mom is newly single and has recently started back in the dating scene. If this wasn’t hard enough to deal with, she recently started seeing a guy close to 18 years younger then her.
At first I was all for it. After I saw a photo of the guy, and realized that I would have probably hit on him at a bar, it got a little weird. If it’s not enough competition at the bars from girls my own age, I now have to worry about my mom picking up guys before I do? This is weird.
The upside is the fact that I do now live almost seven hours away from the Cougarville metropolitan area. My only query is if it can happen there, what’s stopping it from happening here?
Sarasota was the town where my friends and I would go to art shows and see some local bands, as our town was chock full of retirees, the usual in most of Florida. Did the cougars figure it out? The younger population flocked to Sarasota from most of southwest Florida to find something to do. It’s like they set a trap.
If is happening in Florida, where will it stop? I’m still fairly new to Savannah, so I’m not sure if there is an area of town where older ladies flock, however I do notice more cougars at the bars I go to downtown. While most of the time you can spot the tourists just out for the weekend, if you’re out enough you start to notice the familiar faces; the cougars of Savannah.
What I find really scary is when the cougars start to hunt outside of the bar scene. They invade college parties, going after younger naive boys who think it’s a cool story to have if they let a cougar catch them. However, what these boys do not realized is while they may have a cool story for their drinking buddies, younger women do not appreciate cougar hookups.
If that young woman was at the same party as a cougar, she now has to worry about the fact that while she may be the hottest girl in the room, the cougar’s novelty might outshine her.
The cougar strikes again.
Ladies, watch out if you’re ever in Sarasota, because the cougars are on the prowl, and they just might expanding their hunting territories to Savannah.
