'Cougar' Women Say He Just Happens to Be Younger | Womens eNews
source: http://www.womensenews.org/story/marriagedivorce/100709/cougar-women-say-he-just-happens-be-...
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When Susan McBride started dating her future husband, she had to get over the fact that he was routinely carded.
McBride met Ed Spitznagel when she was 41 and he was a baby-faced 32.
A mutual acquaintance introduced them at a party thrown by St. Louis Magazine to fete the men and women profiled in its "Top Singles" issue, of which McBride was one. He followed up with an e-mail inviting her to a hockey game. Though somewhat unnerved by the age difference, McBride, a full-time author of mysteries and commercial fiction, was charmed by the software engineer's good spelling and proper use of the semicolon.
Eight months after they met, they bought a house together. He proposed five months after that and they married in February 2008.
Couples such as McBride and Spitznagel have been drawing attention since 2003 when the media latched onto movie star Demi Moore dating Ashton Kutcher, 15 years her junior. Pop culture dubbed women dating younger men "cougars," a term some find harmless and others insulting. Such a label doesn't exist for older men who date younger women.
McBride--who in February saw the publication of her book "The Cougar Club," about three career women who reconnect in midlife and who happen to date some younger men--embraces the term.
But not Priscilla Nelson, who says it "feels demeaning to my relationship." Nelson has been married to Ed Cohen, 10 years her junior, for 21 years. They live in Encinitas, Calif., where they raised two children and now run a global consulting firm together. Cohen calls Nelson his best friend and points out that because women live longer than men, the age gap means "I won't have to leave my wife alone on the planet. We can go together."
"It wasn't about a younger man," Nelson said. "It was about this man."
Read the full story at Women's eNews http://www.womensenews.org/story/marriagedivorce/100709/cougar-women-say-he-just...
McBride met Ed Spitznagel when she was 41 and he was a baby-faced 32.
A mutual acquaintance introduced them at a party thrown by St. Louis Magazine to fete the men and women profiled in its "Top Singles" issue, of which McBride was one. He followed up with an e-mail inviting her to a hockey game. Though somewhat unnerved by the age difference, McBride, a full-time author of mysteries and commercial fiction, was charmed by the software engineer's good spelling and proper use of the semicolon.
Eight months after they met, they bought a house together. He proposed five months after that and they married in February 2008.
Couples such as McBride and Spitznagel have been drawing attention since 2003 when the media latched onto movie star Demi Moore dating Ashton Kutcher, 15 years her junior. Pop culture dubbed women dating younger men "cougars," a term some find harmless and others insulting. Such a label doesn't exist for older men who date younger women.
McBride--who in February saw the publication of her book "The Cougar Club," about three career women who reconnect in midlife and who happen to date some younger men--embraces the term.
But not Priscilla Nelson, who says it "feels demeaning to my relationship." Nelson has been married to Ed Cohen, 10 years her junior, for 21 years. They live in Encinitas, Calif., where they raised two children and now run a global consulting firm together. Cohen calls Nelson his best friend and points out that because women live longer than men, the age gap means "I won't have to leave my wife alone on the planet. We can go together."
"It wasn't about a younger man," Nelson said. "It was about this man."
Read the full story at Women's eNews http://www.womensenews.org/story/marriagedivorce/100709/cougar-women-say-he-just...
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