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She’s 38, full-figured, experienced, a bit tired. He’s 16, skinny taut body brimming with raw energy and eager to learn. She invites him in for a drink, strokes his cheek, her bathrobe falls open…

Our avant-garde theatre recently hosted a “cougar (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,369022,00.html) movie” extravaganza. You know, movies where older women seduce young males – usually teenage virgins in these movies. It’s hot, it’s sexy, and apparently it’s acceptable. That is, as long as it’s an older woman and a younger boy/man.

Top Cougar Movies

Chances are you can easily come up with your own list of the top cougar movies (http://cougarhunter.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=100&Itemid=135) of all time. Here are some samples:

§ The Graduate (http://www.globality.org/2007/09/graduate-was-christmas-release.html) – “starring an ingénue Dustin Hoffman (http://backstage.blogs.com/blogstage/2008/11/dustin-hoffman-the-sweet-smell-of-success.html) who succumbs to the world-weary Mrs. Robinson’s seductive spell.” Gee, Mrs. Robinson!”

§ Class (http://www.amazon.com/Class-Jacqueline-Bisset/dp/B00004Y87M) – Jacqueline Bissett (http://www.jacquelinebissetfans.org/) utters one of the steamiest lines ever to her son’s classmate (Andrew McCarthy (http://andrewmccarthy.net/) in his film debut) in an elevator: “Do you like it better going up or going down”

§ The Last Picture Show (http://www.filmsite.org/lastp.html ) – Cloris Leachman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzg_ChGs2t8) won an academy award for her powerful cougar portrayal

§ American Pie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghRg6WldSfA) – Stiffler’s Mom makes a man out of her son’s high school friend in the pool room

§ My Tutor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v214CmuGPQw) – the boy looks like he’s 13, and is obviously scared as it takes her many attempts to finally force herself on him

§ Private Lessons (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18DJ6n_ZxtA) – at least this boy’d old enough to be interested and has something of a man’s body

No Equal Opportunity for Men

What do Mrs. Robinson, Stiffler’s mom, and all the other famous cougars have in common? They get away with it. We think he’s lucky and she’s either hot or pathetic, but I can’t think of any movie that implies immorality.

But what if we reversed the genders. What if Mr. Robinson had seduced Dustin’s teenage sister, or Stiffler’s dad had boozed up one of the graduating girl virgins at the pool table? He’s not a glorified cougar – he’s a pervert, a rapist, or at least a sick old letch.

What movie examples do we have here?

§ American Beauty (http://txreviews.com/movies/ambea.html) – Kevin Spacey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Spacey) is applauded for coming to his senses just before deflowering his daughter’s friend

§ Last Tango in Paris (http://www.fandango.com/lasttangoinparis_v28388/summary) – now this is one of the hottest movies of all time, and what a great treat for Marlon Brando! But she’s definitely of age, so it’s just a question of taste, not morality.

§ Jack Nicholson (http://getinterestingfacts.blogspot.com/2008/12/jack-nicholson-to-enter-hall-of-fame.html) also gets away with it in several roles, but even in Something’s Gotta Give (http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Something’s_Gotta_Give/) the final message is to get with someone his own age (Diane Keaton, that is)

Maybe it’s OK, on screen at least

To be a bit too honest, I’m not really lobbying for any change. I’m quite happy being allowed to fantasize about it being me, not my buddy (and not my son in a few years!), whose 15-year-old babysitter who decided to show him what to do on a date. And I’m just as happy to keep seeing a message that we creepy older men better respect boundaries. But the double-standard is interesting to explore.

I’ll leave you with a song – my own rewrite of Garth Brooks’ (http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/brooks_garth/artist.jhtml) fantastic ballad “That Summer.” (http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/1980/) Would it have been a #1 country hit (http://www.acctop40.com/Article.asp?id=613460) with this gender reversal?

She came to work for me that summer; teenage girl so far from home

I was a lonely widowed farmer, hell-bent to make it on my own

We were a million miles from nowhere, wheat fields as far as we could see

Each needing something from each other, not knowing yet what that might be

Till I came to her one evening; hot cup of coffee and a smile

And in a robe that she was certain I hadn’t worn for quite a while

There was a difference in my laughter, there was a softness in my eyes

And in the air there was a hunger even a girl could recognize

I had a need to feel the thunder, chase the lightning from the skies

Watch the storm with all its wonder raging in my lover’s eyes

I had to ride the heat of passion, like a comet burning bright

Rushing headlong in the wind, out where only dreams have been

Burning both ends of the night

That summer wind was all around us; nothing between us but the night
And when she told me that she’d never, I softly whispered “that’s allright”

Then she watched my hands of leather turn to velvet in a touch

There’s never been another summer that she has ever learned so much