When Will Society Stop Slamming Cougar Love?

Linda Franklin

After appearing on the  Joy Behar Show  recently, I got a flood of emails asking  - who was that guy on television with you? He most definitely raised the hackles on the backs of lots of women, but I guess he feels that's his job.  His name is Steve Ward and he is a  self-proclaimed “dating pathologist” who appears on VH''s Tough Love .

I got the impression that Mr. Ward doesn't like women very much and particularly women over 40. The Behar segment focused on cougar relationships and Steve doesn't approve of them. He thinks the guys are only there for sex and/or money, but who cares what he thinks?

I want to share with you just one of the hundreds of emails I received extolling the many virtues of cougar relationships. These fabulous females are sharing their lives with men who love and adore them. They have stopped listening to the advice of other people and started to listen to their own hearts. The results have been outstanding. What follows illustrates what I am saying.

"Linda, I haven't written to you in quite a while, but the catalyst for this note was your appearance on the Joy Behar Show the other night. As usual, you were well-spoken, fabulous and gorgeous, but that idiot who shared the space with you was so insulting and off base (I can't even remember his name), I just had to write and tell you that I couldn't believe it.)

"My husband is 48 and I will be 66 in March. We just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and have been together now for almost 22 years. Both of us are very active and enjoy life and enjoy each other. We are a loving, supportive couple. My husband is still advancing in his career and I am happily retired from mine. We adore my two daughters and four grandchildren. The age difference never bothers us, and he is definitely more mature than I am and always has been. Our marriage is better than most and I so resent that man's attitude." 

That's what I keep hearing from women all over the world. Can they all be smoking funny stuff? Cougar relationships, like all other relationships, flourish when you put in the time and effort to make them work. So Mr. Ward before you go around making ridiculous statements about who should love whom, maybe you had better take a closer look at what love really is.

______________________________

Linda Franklin is the author of 
Don't Ever Call Me Ma’am: The Real Cougar Woman Handbook 
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Ever-Call-Me-Maam/dp/1599321610/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255663331&sr=1-1>
  and the founder of TheRealCougarWoman.c <http://www.therealcougarwoman.com/> 
 <http://www.more.com/7846/13653-defending-cougar-couples#>