Kim Cattrall Refuses to Pose With Cougar and Loses Magazine Cover

by Sarah Menkedick · 2010-05-22 07:00:00 UTC
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Bravo to Kim Cattrall for calling out the insulting, demeaning concept of "cougars." There is, in my opinion, no better celeb to do it, since Cattrall's Sex and the City character Samantha is just the type who would scoff at such a term as derogatory and idiotic.

Catrall lost a cover with a prominent magazine directed at women in their 40s and older because she refused to pose with a cougar. She told Extra, "I think cougar has a negative connotation and I don't see anything negative about Samantha and her sexuality, sensuality and choice."

Wouldn't it fit perfectly with the mainstream media's fear/mocking of older women to simply label Samantha and Cattrall as cougars — pathetic, grovelling creatures who can be freakish and funny but never really empowered — instead of seeing them as independent and kick-ass heroines? This is why Cattrall's simple debunking of the cougar classification is so great: it shrugs off the notion that a woman in her 40s can't be sexual without also being grotesque and desperate.

Cattrall pinpoints the problem perfectly: "I think that's something that people who are uncomfortable with strong women have labeled [Samantha]." Precisely. Empowered, independent, and sexy women over 40 are downright terrifying, so let's come up with a denigrating symbol to refer to them and reduce them to a more comfortable stereotype.

If only more celebrities would dismiss the cougar fad as eloquently as Cattrall, maybe we'd be one step closer to a less ageist society, and women over forty wouldn't have to constantly reiterate that they don't have to be either sexless matrons or sexed up cougars.

Photo credit: The Heart Truth

Sarah Menkedick is a freelance writer currently based in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has spent the last five years teaching, writing and traveling on five continents. She regularly writes about women's rights.
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