Coronation Street Blog: In defence of Cougar Carla's Corrie storyline

Saturday, 27 January 2018

In defence of Cougar Carla's Corrie storyline

Guest blog post from Flo Hough who is on Twitter @FloCorrieFan
Fancy writing a guest blog post for us? All details here!

I think we’ve all read in some form or another about the upcoming story on Corrie about Carla and Daniel. Details are still sketchy at best, but we do know that Carla does snog Daniel, and it doesn’t sound as though Daniel is going to be saying no to “The Carla Connor”.

I personally think it’s going to be a fun storyline on the show and I’m anxious to see how it all plays out. However, I have been very surprised and shocked at some of the comments made in regards to this upcoming romance (if that’s what it’s going to be) and thought it was something that might be interesting to discuss.

According to the wonderful Corriepedia, Carla would have just celebrated her 43rd birthday. Daniel is 23, also having just celebrated his birthday the day after Carla. So there’s a 20 year age gap. Unconventional yes; impossible, no. I’ve seen people with comments such as “disgusting, wrong, blech”. Seriously?! These are two consenting adults. This isn’t Daniel’s first time around the block with an older woman either, remember his dalliance with the reporter from the Weatherfield Gazette? And quite honestly, why not? Just because the woman is older, it suddenly becomes a bit taboo for some reason. I don’t understand why the double standard.

There have been plenty of couples on the cobbles where there have been significant age differences. Deidre and Ken (16 years) Mike Baldwin and Susan Barlow (23 years) and Jenny Bradley and Johnny Connor (17 years) are three that popped into my head immediately. I doubt that anyone thought anything of their age differences or made juvenile comments in regards to such, but suddenly because the roles are flipped and the woman is the older of the two, it’s now just not acceptable. Talk about ageist.

Another comment I saw was that it was weird because Daniel is the half brother of her ex-husband Peter. Wait a second…the story where Carla falls in love with her brother-in-law Liam was one of the more popular love stories on Corrie with a huge fan base of “Liarla” fans (I think that’s what it was called) who still, to this day “ship” over their story. I was one of those fans! Weatherfield is a small town and without a huge population of available males, it’s going to be inevitable that somewhere along the way, this kind of thing is going to happen. And why shouldn’t it? It’s not like its incest or something illegal/immoral. It also makes me wonder if a Carla/David pairing would have worked as well.

Then there are those who say “she would never be interested in someone like Daniel.” Says who? Daniel is well educated, intelligent and while he can be annoying at times, he is well spoken. He’s not too hard on the eyes either, so I can totally see Carla being interested in him, even if it’s only going to be for a short period of time. They are two complex characters who both seem to fall deeply in love when they do, and I think it will make for a very interesting dynamic. As for the age difference, don’t forget that Daniel basically raised himself after his mother abandoned him, so he’s probably far more mature than the average 23 year old. Sure, he has his faults, but at least he isn’t turning to a bottle of vodka for courage every time something goes wrong. (Sorry Peter) Just stay away from the stairs Carla if you make him mad.

I personally look forward to seeing the direction the writers go with this story, it could be a lot of fun. I’m all for fun. As for the age difference, age is only a number. The added bonus is if it gets Daniel away from Sinead, all the better. I’m just glad it’s not Chesney that Carla is kissing, she’s far too much fun for that.

By Flo Hough who is on Twitter @FloCorrieFan

Fancy writing a guest blog post for us? All details here!

The Little Book of Carla Connor - all details here.