2008: The Year of the Cougar?

The wild success of Sex & the City. The marriage of Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon. And now the re-launch of urbancougar.com.  The signs all point to 2008 being The Year of the Cougar!

It seems cougars have been on our minds all year. They’ve been the subject of a near-ridiculous number of articles and television programs. The merits of the term have been hotly debated in newspaper editorials and online forums. “Cougar” has become so big in fact, there’s a chance it might be The New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year.

The mainstream media and gossip blogs have followed with typical relish every cougary twist in the romantic adventures of Jennifer Aniston. Cougars for Cook launched their favorite American Idol to superstardom. Our finest comedies spent much of 2008 milking cougars for all their worth – sometimes to great effect , as in the hysterical episode of 30 Rock, the unenlightened but still pretty funny skit on Saturday Night Live. There was the inevitable reality dating show, Age of Love, and the obligatory E! special, The 25 Hottest Hollywood Cougar Tales. And it seems now the go-to ratings-boosting move for every show is to introduce a cougar character (see: Gossip Girl).

Even the esteemed ladies at WowOWow took a look at the phenomenon and offered up a list of their favorite cougars! 

So it certainly seems like 2008 has been The Year of the Cougar. We here at urbancougar.com have only one thing to say: it’s about friggin’ time.


Photo Source: IMDB, Sex and the City: The Movie