Headcase

"The research group, which was led by Judith Easton and included David Buss, conducted an online survey with 827 women..."

This is a good article and all, but unless this was a random sample of some sort, these results have some bias and are thus suspect.

Awesome!!! This divorced 41 year old approves. ;)
Ah yes, The Graduate... Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson...

who held the power in a clearly incandescent affair.
I've only been with lucky younger men. If you asked them, they'd verify their luck.

Why do we assume that these findings are due to a reproductive clock that's running out? I noticed that the differences between "reproduction expediting" and the menopausal (read: no longer reproducing) groups were non-existent (at least based on your summary, I haven't read the actual article yet). I would venture to say that the difference to the younger group is due to more confidence and comfort with our sexuality rather than our (desperate?) need to reproduce. Although this probably doesn't change the recommendation to younger men to expand their horizons...

I absolutely agree with Rachel's comment about "confidence and comfort with our sexuality". Let's face it: self-confidence is irresistible and SEXY, no matter who we are, or what age we are. It's just that many older women (including myself, at age 43) grow much more comfortable in our own skin as we get older. I, for one, would not give up my life experiences to return to my 20-year-old body. In fact, in many ways, I truly believe I am much more attractive (on many levels) in my 40s than I ever was in my 20s. Let's hear it for all those self-confident "cougars"!

Ever since I read this, been wondering if you're joking or are serious.

Well... As a 41 year old New Yorker who is a mom of a little four year old boy, is divorced (not of my own fault, the ex-husband left my son and myself) and has yet to embark on the dreaded dating-after-divorce, I kind of wondered if you were reporting on these findings with neutrality or even with a wink or smile, or, on the flip side, joking about them and sort of mocking women of my age group and the idea that women like myself might appeal at all to younger guys.

Either way, I was intrigued.

I am a thiry six year old, divorced female. For some reason, I always end up with younger guys. My ex-husband was only one year younger than me, not a big deal. I have to say, I have been in two relationships with guys that were significantly younger than me, and those two relationships were the best ones. My current boyfriend is 11 years younger than me, he is wonderful, caring, and more mature than most men my age.

I still roll my eyes when the framing of this article supports the cultural stereotype of "what's attractive to men"...I really don't hold men accountable for this even though some are clueless...this article assumes the ongoing media and cultural manipulation in defining what is "sexy and hot" for men....pleeze...stop categorizing a woman's worth by age...I don't care that you bless it with reproductive research that describes our desire as "egg" driven (kudos to the comments above that challenged that idea)...as usual "older women" is defined as 36? It reminds of all the cosmetic ads that talk about women of a certain age...targeted at women of 40?
The Graduate was a movie of its time...mostly targeted at a male audience...the real and sensual older women were in foreign films.
I am sitting here ready to embrace 60 and I turn to an article supposedly in praise of older women and again I find no real discussion of real older women...just stupid cougar references and as usual we are dumped into the postmenopausal garbage heap...I am really tired of it...and pleeze don't point out how I am not seeing your intent correctly...I am having too much fun with my invisible, hot and confident but really older women friends to give this anymore of my precious time

I'm 39 and my lover is 25.
It's true that I'm more passionate, sensual, and confident in bed than I was when I was 20.
He says he's lucky to have me I agree). ;-)

Has it ever occured to you that not all older women would even want a younger man? Older women actually have HIGHER standards when it comes to putting up with infantile douchebags, even if they happen to have a nice body.

More and more younger women, as it happens, don't even like dating guys their own age - that's why so many men are even able to date younger women - so what makes you think an older woman would put up with it? Women's confidence and self-value tend to increase with age, not decrease.

Of course your article didn't really take into account what the woman in the situation might want at all. I don't want to appear biased, but maybe your gender has something to do with that.

All in all, fail.

...right in all the comments: (most) women age like milk.

Wow, Mr. Jaffe probably thought this would be good news to older women. But women, especially feminists, are not generally big fans of evolutionary psychology as this article relates to. I understand that some women don't (purportedly)want to value themselves according to what men think, but the flip side is that it is important to men how attractive they are to women too, though what goes into perceived attractiveness is vastly different for the two genders. This is, again, evolution. Men can get away with being unattractive, in a way, but also can stay handsome well into their 50's. Women, on the other hand, to quote the bard....

Woman are as roses, whose fair flower
Once displayed doth fall that very hour

But consistent with Mr. Jaffe's point, women can sometimes be sexually attractive in their early forties. Therefore, women should be happy about this interesting article.