Today’s Random Ass Post concerns the delectable Mr. Johnny Depp and why he, to my knowledge, has NEVER been dogged by the press about whether or not he has gone under the knife. Meanwhile, his contemporary, the equally delectable Ms. Demi Moore, is constantly dogged about it. Oooh weee, what’s up with that? Double standard much?
Maybe people take it for granted that women age some much faster and more poorly than men (they don’t) or that women are scrutinized much more for their looks than men (absolutely true and positively unfair). Such is life. Still, it’s an annoying double standard.
Ms. Moore is also famous for starting the “cougar” trend of “older” women marrying younger men (or using them for purely carnal pleasure) - something men have done for millennia without so much as a raised societal eyebrow. Even though Ms. Moore is only 15 years her husband’s senior – biologically old enough to be his mother, but socially old enough to be his big sister – she catches hell for it.
Meanwhile, Nicholas Cage married a young woman 22 years his junior, and Woody Allen scandalized Hollywood by taking up with and eventually marrying his step daughter - 34 years his junior. Despite these high profile dirty old men marrying mere girls, society didn’t confer upon a whole category of such men a snappy, predatory name like “wolf,” or “bear.”
Examples of male/female age gaps like those previously mentioned are just a few of the reasons I find the term “cougar” highly offensive. Cougar as a descriptor for older women who date younger men is simply sexist, ageist and highlights all the double standards women are consistently subjected to.
For the love of all that’s holy, can someone explain to me how it’s perfectly okay for a man to date an actual GIRL – while it’s not okay for a woman to date a grown ass man less than 20 years her junior?
On a personal level, I could care less about age-gap relationships. As long as two consenting adults can overcome whatever generational and social hurdles they’ll ultimately face to be together, more power to them. Sure, dating someone who is 20 when you’re 50 is a little odd, creepy even. And it just doesn’t matter if the younger person is male, female or something in between. But who am I? The dick and pussy police?
If the media and anyone else are going to pester Demi Moore about her alleged plastic surgeries and her age relative to her husband's, why should her male colleagues get a free pass? Shit, for all we know Johnny Depp drinks the blood of eight-year-old boys to continue looking as young as he does. But somehow, his good looks at 48 are never scrutinized simply because he is male.
Frankly, I think we all need to get over ourselves. The reality: more than we can imagine – middle age is not some magic threshold that one passes over then suddenly fines themselves degenerating into a wrinkled mass of flesh. Actually, how people age varies from individual to individual. Just as no single 13-year-old looks the same, no single 40-, 50- or 60-something looks the same.
It’s entirely possible that Demi Moore is telling the absolute truth: she has had nothing done to her face. Plenty of people, even white folks, look youthful for their age. Women included. Wow, what a concept.
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