Dating an older woman? Most women don't like being called MILFs, and are trying to create a new name for themselves. It's WHIP.

Is "WHIP" the new "MILF?"



If you haven't heard about this new meaning for "WHIP" before, you're not alone. It was coined by a writer from the UK named Bibi Lynch, who is an attractive older woman that you would probably consider a MILF or Cougar. She dates almost exclusively younger men, which she should and does feel great about.

She finds the use of terms like "Cougar" and "MILF" to label her irksome however, and in an attempt to create a new term that she and other women like her can proudly call themselves, has come up with the term, "WHIP." What does "WHIP" stand for? According to Lynch, WHIP stands for, "Women who are Hot, Intelligent and in their Prime." She follows up the explanation with this quip about what the men who hookup or date WHIPs should be called. She says, "And the men shall be called really bloody lucky."



Whether or not WHIP is going to catch on and replace MILF, we think that it's a fairly safe bet that it won't, even though it's much more flattering to the women that it's describing. It just doesn't have the pop culture connection or even catchiness that MILF does.

There are a lot of things to talk about if we want to give the possibility fuller consideration though. So let's take a deeper look at whether or not "WHIP" is the new "MILF," or even if it has a chance to be.

It's a bit of a generality, but let's be honest; men are already confused most of the time when it comes to women, and how to treat them. The fact that "MILF" has entered the public vocabulary as deeply as it has is a great indicator of this.

There are of course going to be guys who say, "Whaaat? It's a compliment that I want to fuck her!" but calling someone a MILF is very rarely going to be considered a compliment. There's a crassness to it, that really keeps it relegated to private discussions among male friends, and in the porn aisle of the video store (what few of them still exist, that is). In our opinion, there isn't a man with his head screwed on tight, who would call a woman a MILF to her face, in an e-mail/letter, or in any space that they knew that the woman was going to hear them. So that alone is reason enough to think that it's extremely unlikely that "WHIP" will catch on.

Lynch's argument that the term needs to be replaced, requires her to present proof that being called a "MILF" is something that she encounters frequently in her life. We find that very difficult to believe. Being called a "Cougar", we can see happening more frequently, but her throwing "MILF" into the mix, so that she can riff on the acronym style, when creating a replacement for "Cougar". It's an unfortunate (but huge) misstep in her attempt to change the language that's used to speak about her and women like her.

To further confuse things, the point of an acronym is to create a new "word" that is instantly recognized as the thing that it's short form for. So there's the very obvious problem that "whip" is already a word, and though we may not all own whips, the odds are extremely low that Lynch's new definition of WHIP will catch on and be the first thing that people think of if say you're having a conversation with your friends, telling them about how you've been hooking up with a really hot WHIP lately. Your friends would most likely look at you like you had two heads; completely confused, and having no idea what it is you're on about. They might think that you've lost your mind, or just nod, not wanting to even ask what you mean. Nobody likes not knowing the latest slang after all.

And if that's not enough, the word "whip" is slang in hip hop music and culture to refer to someone's fancy car.

We'll keep this point relatively short, because it involves something that has been known to put the strongest of us straight to sleep when our friends start talking about it.

So what's this other "WHIP" acronym? It's a baseball statistic that calculates the number of Walks and Hits that a pitcher gives up on average over 9 (the number of innings in a baseball game) Innings Pitched. ... We told you it was boring, so don't get upset. This statistic is very frequently used by players of fantasy sports, as well as just everyday fans of baseball.

There are of course female fans of baseball, but like most sports, the majority of its audience is men. So if you're looking for men to start referring to older sexy women as something other than MILFs or Cougars, you should probably pick a term that doesn't already exist in something like a major sport.

We may sound somewhat unsympathetic to the attempt to replace "MILF" and "Cougar" with terms that are a bit more flattering, and that focus on the positive aspects of an older woman, but we most certainly aren't. We understand that being referred to as a "Mom I'd Like to Fuck" or a "Cougar" (and the predatory associations that come with that name) aren't terribly appealing to women, and are arguably insulting. So it makes all the sense in the world that these women, who are in their sexual prime, most likely at a great place professionally, financially, and the most comfortable that they've ever been in their skin, want a better term to describe them.

We touched on it though, and there really aren't that many times when men will refer to them by those terms in public. The places where they're most likely to see the words used is in comedic media (and porn, but that's another issue altogether). Imagine the scene in American Pie where the teenaged boys identify Stifler's mom as a MILF, if it was replaced with WHIP.

"She's a WHIP."
"What's a WHIP?"
"A woman who's hot, intelligent and in her prime."


*crickets*

If Cougartown was called WHIPtown instead? People would think it was a show about cars.

So the entire thought of replacing the terms with something more flattering, yet not at all catchy or humorous, betrays the mission entirely, and displays a misunderstanding of who and what the terms are for. They're amusing (at their root) nicknames essentially. If women who find themselves under the umbrella of MILFs and Cougars were to simply say, "We don't like those terms, and would rather you not call us those things," then there's potential to get somewhere. But the biggest rule when it comes to nicknames, is that you can't give yourself one. You can't say, "I don't like the thing that you're focusing on. Could you instead please call me a WHIP? That refers to my hotness, my intelligence, and that I'm in my prime." See why "WHIP" will never replace "MILF" or "Cougar"?

If sexy older women want to create a name for themselves that they'll use among themselves, that's a more reasonable and potentially effective way to get to the point of phasing out, or at least reducing the number of people who use the terms when speaking about older women that are still out there having sex, like they should be.

In 1992, best-selling American author, Olivia Goldsmith wrote a novel called The First Wives Club. It was an empowering novel about three women who have all been divorced by their husbands for younger women. It was a statement on how many men were dating younger women, and leaving their older, but still extremely vibrant and sexual wives to do so. It was a huge success, and the book sold millions of copies. It was then adapted by Hollywood, into a big screen hit comedy starring Diane Keaton, Bette Middler, and Goldie Hawn. The film made over 180 million dollars at the domestic box office. That's of course a lot of pieces falling into place perfectly, but it became a touchstone for older divorced women, and many women took the "divorcee" label, which was considered by many to be a negative one, and turned it on its head. Now being a divorced woman didn't mean you were damaged goods. It didn't mean that you were going to be alone for the rest of your life. Women who had felt that way, were now empowered, and when someone called them a divorcee, they wouldn't react negatively to it. They would focus on the positives. They no longer had to spend the rest of their lives with someone who didn't love them. They were able to get out there and date younger men. They didn't have to answer to anyone but themselves. After years of having their age and status as a divorced woman making them feel less than the younger women that more frequently, men of their own age were dating, they found themselves realizing how many things they had that those younger women didn't. It's very similar to the effort to replace MILF and Cougar with WHIP, but much more natural, and therefore more effective. Of course a bestselling book and box office smash movie aren't easy things to come by, but they were organic.

Back to the idea that these intelligent, strong, and beautiful older women CAN create a new term to refer to themselves by. It should be gone about in a fun way. They should be looking to pop culture for their direction, because it's obvious that pop culture is the thing that determines the expressions that people use, more and more. They could take inventory of some of the biggest MILFs and Cougars that have ever graced the big screen. The original MILF is probably Anne Bancroft in The Graduate, as Mrs. Robinson, the mother of the protagonist's fiancee, who attempts to seduce him. The Graduate and Mrs. Robinson are both iconic. The song about Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel from the film's soundtrack was even a gigantic hit. So people know Mrs. Robinson. Maybe referring to themselves as "Mrs. Robinsons" is a bit on the nose. But why not "Annes," as a nod to the actress who played the character? There's Sophia Lauren, Helen Mirren, Demi Moore, Isabella Rossellini and countless other actresses who were sexy well into their later years. Perhaps there'll be a big movie or book in the coming years (Or heck! Maybe even a song) that plays around with something like this, and it will catch on. We're still not sure it would be enough to make the dudes who use the words now change, but it could certainly catch on with groups of women, and most female writers.

For the most part, we're just in way too deep to change the terms now. They've blown up way too big to stop. We understand that Ms. Lynch may not have had issues with the labels when they blew up, because she wasn't yet at that age, but if she's looking to make her mark on the dictionary, we suggest that she try to jump on the thing that she wants to change, much earlier in the game. Waiting until over a decade of use, when there have been numerous businesses and products like MILF porn and Cougar dating websites absolutely thriving, is waiting too late. You must take action earlier, and it must also be more organic (and better researched).