According to a recent Daily Mail Online article American psychologist Louann Brizendine, whose book The Female Brain maps the key changes our minds and emotions undergo at different life stages, points out that 65 per cent of divorces after 50 are now initiated by women.
Seems men no longer corner the market on the mid-life crisis. Blame it on the fact that 50 is the new, what 25? Women are being told, left, right and centre that aging is no longer about sitting around in holiday sweaters knitting booties for your grandkids. We are encouraged to be fabulous, feisty, and ready for some fun.
The fact is, after age 50 more and more women are realizing that freed of the responsibilities of juggling young children, a career and a household, they suddenly take a look around and go, "wait a sec', what I am doing here?"
Then they look at their partner and say, "um, and who the heck are you."
Combine all this with an increased self-confidence, a bag full of life experience and a whole new set of hormones fluctuations and you've got yourself a full-blown mid-life crisis.
And, of course, what's a good mid-life crisis without bagging someone half your age.
Of course, Madonna, trendsetter that she's always been is right in on the action, having ditched Guy for a younger model (a hot Brazilian one at that, named Jesus, no less!)
As Valerie Gibson, 60-something author of Cougar: A Guide for Older Women Dating Younger Men once put it to me: "Guys my age are old farts. They're fat and balding with baggage. They're not open sexually. They're sticks in the mud."
C'mon, tell us what you really think.
Screw aging gracefully. At 61, Gibson would rather just screw. And preferably with some young hottie, complete with a great bod and boundless sexual energy--someone who can keep up with her.
As for the cougar label being less than flattering, Gibson just shrugs: "I love the image of a cougar. They're sleek, powerful, and strong.
And it beats the names we give older men who date younger women: Perverts, dirty old men, gross.
Come to think of it, while I'm the first one to get out my pom-poms and cheer the image of the sexy older woman, all these female-mid-life crisis shenanigans sound suspiciously like the stuff we give older guys a hard time about.
Then again, this hasn't stopped them from enjoying it. In fact, we've long accepted the older man/younger woman scenario. Maybe it's about time we get used to the opposite as well.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, as they say. Or toss them out on their ass and find yourself a younger model.
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