Cougar Fatigue: Desire Isn’t the Problem—Hollywood’s Lens Is

Middle-Aged Women Get Their Young Lovers on Screen, But They Deserve So Much More

In Amazon Prime’s The Idea of You, a 40-year-old single mom falls for a 24-year-old boy-band idol. And the internet loses its mind.

She’s called a cougar, a stalker, the “sleaziest mom of the year.” He’s questioned about the relationship, while she’s shamed. The mom—played by Anne Hathaway—has to hide out until the hate subsides.

The sequence points to a truth we all know: When women date younger men, people get weird. The man might be teased. The woman? She’s despised—at least in America.

Older man, younger woman? That’s not news—it’s tradition. On screen, it’s standard casting. Off screen, it’s barely a headline.

Cue the Double Standard

But flip the ages, and now it’s a spectacle. Sure, real-life couples like Cher and Alexander Edwards, or Helena Bonham Carter and Rye Dag Holmboe, are shaking things up. But Madonna? Demi? They got mocked for trying. The cultural cynicism still clings.

And yet—something is shifting. Streaming platforms are starting to flip the script on May-December romances. Maybe because they know who’s watching: older, often female audiences who’ve had enough of invisibility.

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Images courtesy of Amazon Prime and Netflix