JENNIFER LOPEZ: I Am Cougar, Hear Me Roar!

Jennifer Lopez thinks the gossip mags have a double standard -- and she's standing up for the rights of so-called "cougars."

J-Lo tells Self magazine, “All the old clichés about women need to be undone... We are desirable older, we can date younger guys and it’s not this big taboo. Men have been doing this for years, and it’s no big deal.”

Jenny From the Block has never gone quite as far as the character she plays in the new flick The Boy Next Door -- a gal who has a one-night stand with a teenage neighbor. But she does admit, "I’ve been through divorce. I’ve been cheated on, just like every other girl in the world. So you sympathize, you understand the emotions. And I’ve dated a younger guy once in my life, so I could definitely understand that part, too -- the attraction.”

The Boy Next Door opens on January 23rd.