[SixofNine]

A high school in Utah, in the middle of a giant fan base for the Brigham Young University Cougars, can't use the same nickname because it might offend middle-aged women.

[Biker]

OK. This PC bullshit is going too far. Seriously?!!!!

[SixofNine]

Biker, on 25 January 2012 - 01:16 PM, said:

OK. This PC bullshit is going too far. Seriously?!!!!

For a second I thought it was April 1st.

[Allene]

I am very surprised that they'd worry about being PC to women there.

SixofNine, on 25 January 2012 - 01:39 PM, said:

For a second I thought it was April 1st.

[Kluge]

The cougar definition is new to me and smells like a major smoke & mirrors spin job. Probably to avoid lawsuits over stuff that was in the public records somewhere.

When I first heard somebody once say "I can call them cougars because nobody knows what I'm talking about" I assumed they really meant another word that ends with -gers.

[SixofNine]

Kluge, on 25 January 2012 - 04:41 PM, said:

The cougar definition is new to me and smells like a major smoke & mirrors spin job.

It isn't. It has been in the American lexicon for a while. I have never seen either, but there has even been a network show and a reality show.

[Kluge]

SixofNine, on 25 January 2012 - 04:45 PM, said:

It isn't. It has been in the American lexicon for a while. I have never seen either, but there has even been a network show and a reality show.

Both ABC, both 2009. It stinks of artificiality.
Desperate Housewives has been on since 2004, seems like they should have mentioned 'cougar' now and then but I'm not a fan so I couldn't tell you.

I think Radar O'Reilly might have had a thing with a nurse they called a cougar on MASH but I'm not really a fan there either, perhaps a trivia expert could confirm or deny. I don't think she was mddle aged or older, though.

Googling turned up a Slang City slang of the week e-mail from 2007, in part quoting a T-Mobile ad that said "There's an old cougar over there" and I would assert that this is proof that cougar was not so widely known as a predatory older woman because it would be redundant to say old cougar in that case. Simply calling an aggressive woman a cougar is not unique as other comparisons such as lynx, wildcat, she-lion, tigress, etc are just artistic use of language.

I'd be surprised if the term was well known decades ago without me knowing it, but maybe I'm showing my age too much as there are plenty of words like 'tripping' and 'rock' that had new meanings when I was young.

[Biker]

Valerie Gibson used it long before that in her book "Cougar: A Guide For Older Women Dating Younger Men". And I've heard the term used as far back as the 80's. It's not a new "thing".

[Allene]

http://voices.yahoo....ia-5249185.html

It started in 1988 in Vancouver, BC. Not being into chasing younger men, I didn't know about it until Demi Moore and Ashton got into the news. My 9-year-old dictionary contains only the animal definition of the term, but the online version of the dictionary carries the slang term now.

[Kluge]

Biker, on 25 January 2012 - 05:38 PM, said:

Valerie Gibson used it long before that in her book "Cougar: A Guide For Older Women Dating Younger Men". And I've heard the term used as far back as the 80's. It's not a new "thing".

Copyright 2001. Not exactly ancient history.
FWIW, the 80's were a new "thing" at the time, too, and for the record, I hadn't heard the term used previously, nor did its present slang definition cross my mind at any time in connection to any observation or description of a person driving a Cougar. As a corollary to the car name stimilus I would assert that I thought quite a bit about the personalities chosen or imposed by driving Mustang, Lola, Tempest (that guy got into psych trouble and eventually became a suicide) etc.
Nowadays if somebody spent time jawboning about their Cougar you'd have to ask yourself what their real meaning is.