Is T-Pol a Couger

[WarpGirl]

OK call me nuts I know I am but it seems to me being sexually mature and being an adult are two totally different things. On CNN today there was a story about a 10 year old who is pregnant. OK is she sexually mature? Obviously by a biological definition yes. Does that mean she's sexually mature? Um in an emotional or psychological sense I'd guess not. Now is a 50 something woman in menopause sexually mature? Sure. Even if she is not fertal.

So if we are defining sexual maturity in a biological sense, I don't think T'Pol is simply because she hasn't had a true mating cycle. But simply not being able to get pregnant does not mean she is incapable of having a sexual relationship she is mature in every other physical way. It does not creep me out at all. Psychologically and emotionally... Well I think she is mature enough just written badly. So was Trip for that matter. FYI he's 33-34 during their relationship. T'Pol was 27-28 human years. Trip is biologically older. So T'Pol not a cougar.

[panyasan]

I had to google the word "cougar", because it sounds to me like a brand of sigars, but we not discussing T'Pol smokings habits. Did you know "Cougar" is a European military helicoptre design? And also a woman who is looking for a younger man (35 years of difference) to have a relationship with. Back to the topic:

T'Pol is very likely sexually inexperienced, given that she was betrothed as a child and she comes from a culture that suppresses emotions (and by extension desires). In Fusion, she is drawn to Tolaris but doesn't start having sex dreams until she stops meditating. In Bounty, her faux-pon farr is brought on by bacteria. And in Harbinger, her drug addiction has encouraged her to act on impulse. But her desires are not artificial, just her inability to suppress them. But her even her sexual inexperience would manifest differently than it would in a pre-teen - because she's emotionally mature and likely studied and read about sexuality before engaging in the act.

And yes, the notion that she's an adolescent or worse pre-pubescent and has all these human men ogling her - it's pretty distasteful. And I'm more than happy to allow my human mores to inspire such a reaction.

I agree that T'Pol is inexperienced and that all men ogling at her is overwhelming, confusing, but I think it also makes her curious. I also think that she would study about Human sexuality and that is the reason she misses the point in Harbinger. Because you can read about habits, biology and techniques, what makes it truly love making is the emotional element. The unique emotional connection between two people. That what make it so overwhelming for her and why she retreats to "the Vulcan scientist." I also think she jugdes Trip wrongly a couple of times based on her studies taught her. Real people don't fit the box of generaliszations.
If you take into account that T'Pol inexperience, I like Harbinger-stories that show the akwardness and clumsyness of the two during Harbinger. That makes sense to me.

[Transwarp]

I was not familiar with the term 'cougar', either. I must lead a sheltered life, because I've never heard it used that way before. But, no, T'Pol was clearly not seeking a relationship with a younger, less experienced male. I also agree with Honeybee that T'Pol was sexually inexperienced. And she's also emotionally inexperienced (just because she's Vulcan. She's supposed to be.) Heck, Soval is emotionally inexperienced, and he's gotta be pushing 150.

But T'Pol is in no way immature, either physically or mentally. She's been out in the real world for thirty years, to include experience as a field agent with the Security Directorate, hunting down rogue agents. I see no evidence that her attraction to Trip is at all cougarish, if that's a word. They seem to be well matched intellectually, and her superior real-world experience is more than matched by his sexual and emotional experience.

Incidentally, not only are Vulcans capable of sexually relations outside of pon farr, they are also capable of procreation between pon farrs. I remember reading somewhere that some Vulcan's children (Maybe Tuvok's?) were not multiples of seven years apart in age, indicating pregnancies outside of pon farr.

[Elessar]

I don't necessarily think T'Pol is Trip's equivalent biological age... I DO think she's more mature, TBH, but I don't think she qualifies as a cougar either. I mean, yeah sure, she's a knockout gorgeous 67 yr old woman , but a cougar is also an older woman who GOES AFTER (aka, HUNTS, lol, COUGAR, jungle cat!) younger men. Voraciously!

This isn't T'Pol

[WarpGirl]

Elessar you rock! FYI the term "cougar" applies to a woman agressively persuing or "hunting" younger men 5 years or younger as their mates. T'Pol not a cougar. If anything I'm not sure Trip or T'Pol agressively persued their relationship at all. It all seemed to just happen haphazardly.

About Vulcans being able to procreate between Pon Farrs... That's true but I think it's only posiible after the first Pon Farr. I'm pretty sure Vulcans don't have shot-gun weddings. I might be wrong but I think I read it in ST the magazine.

[Elessar]

so is there such a term as cougar-bait? And... can I be it?

[WarpGirl]

I think the term is prey.

[Elessar]

I already have several claw holes

[WarpGirl]

Oh really how salacious.