Dumb. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.

I have seen enough already of the advertisements for this upcoming stupid reality TV show called Age of Love. Mark Philippoussis, a tennis star, will be doing the "Bachelor" show, basically. Only, the "twist" will be he gets two sets of women: "kittens" in their 20s and "cougars" in their 40s. Does age really matter? Let's grab the popcorn and find out!

I despise this set up on so many levels. For starters, it was only until recently that I had even heard of the term "cougar". Has it been around long, or is this the tail end of the baby boomer generation creating a term to describe the fact that they're still sexually active? I hate "kitten" just as much. "Kitten" implies cute and naive. "Cougar" implies predator--and what else would a woman in her 40s-50s prey on except men? Like we have nothing better to hunt down.

Second, why do we need to continue to pit women against each other? Don't women who participate in these things realize this is what's happening? Is their self esteem so low they have to duke it out with each other over one man? I don't like these Bachelor/Bachelorette type shows in the first place, unless, of course, it's The Flavor of Love, where the comedic value is just priceless.

But what really galls my soul, a personal pet peeve of mine, has to do with these photo links. I wish I could upload the picture so you don't have to click, but they haven't hit google image yet, and I'm not talented enough to import the picture otherwise:

Here's Maria. This woman is supposed to be 42 years old.
This one, Jen, is supposedly 48.
Jodie is 46.

Is that what "cougars" look like? Where the hell are the real women? This show should be renamed Love: Pre and Post Plastic Surgery! I'm not "hating" because these women look "better" than your average mid-40s woman. I think they look incredibly fake. Fake boobs, botox, obvious eye work in some cases. This is not what women look like! I'm sure the whole point of this show is to "debunk" the myth that you can't find love with an older woman. But that flushing sound you hear is all the self-esteem and hard work that women have done so that other women don't have to feel like looks are their only asset. All this show does is demonstrate that women believe they have to keep trying to look like they're in their mid-twenties, although all they seem to look like is that they're a being pinched.

Why fool people about your age? Who the devil cares? I know a lot of women care, but why do they care? I realize that I'm in the position of saying this at 29-going-on-30 years old. Having had to go through my mothers "ultra-secret" plastic surgery events, I can say with certainty that if what you don't like about yourself is really an "inside" problem, no amount of tinkering with the outside is going to change how you feel. It makes me sick to think that "cougar" is what is offered to young women as a model of what adult women should look like/be. Where the hell are the courageous and graceful older women?

I want to be courageous, not a cougar.

-- Virgil