what does this mean

A trophy wife is a young, attractive woman married to an older, more powerful man. His role in the relationship is to provide her with money and a comfortable lifestyle. Hers, beyond providing sex, is to remind others that he is powerful or rich enough to be desirable to such a woman despite his age and thus to serve as a marker of this status.

By the way, the contraction of "you are" is written like this: you're

Thank you,
I'm not so great on the keyboard
Question,Now what if the man is younger than the woman he is with? and says the same thing ?

Then he's either an idiot, an asshole, or both. Same meaning though.

Society has a double standard about sexual relations. An older, powerful man with a young woman has a "trophy wife." An older, powerful woman with a young man is called a cougar--the implication being that she is predatory, and that that is distasteful.

If she is richer than her husband and more powerful, he would be known as the "trophy husband." (But not to her face! )

I have heard this used in a humorous complimentary way. If your husband tells you that you are his trophy wife, especially if he is not actually rich and powerful, it could be a playful way of saying you are attractive and desirable.

It isn't right to always assume the worst.

I come from long line of cynics, and it shows. Yes, it isn't right to always assume the worst. It's just usually 'correct'.

I need to work on being an optimist.

No Setanta. You are using grammatical trickery by switching verbs. Those two sentences aren't at all equivalent. There is no double standard, the terms for older man/ younger woman are equivalent to the terms for older woman/ younger man.

Let's look at the equivalent terms (pay attention to the verbs here).

An older powerful man with a young woman has a "trophy wife".
An older powerful woman with a young man has a "boy toy".

An older power woman with a young man is a "cougar".
An older power man with a young woman is a "cradle robber", or a "dirty old man".

I fail to see any double standard.

The double standard is, that men usually get the wink-wink, slap on the back, the hero's welcome. It's socially acceptable. The woman rarely gets that reception, she'll be the but of jokes and vicious gossip.

A completely objective, dispassionate review of your online posts which i commissioned has come to the conclusion that you are full of poop.

That isn't the case where I live Ceili. But, I am curious about what you think the solution is.

Do you think that we should give older women the wink wink, slap on the back. Or do you think we should make men the butt of jokes and vicious gossip?

What do you expect from a dirty old man.

Nope, no solution here. It's just is what it is.
Just the other night, Family Guy visited this topic. An older woman, 50 years young was dating Brian, a dog, and all the jokes were about her age. It was funny cause it was true, at least the ignorance it showed was very recognizable. The only time I can really remember this type of joke being lobbied at a man is when he is significantly older, think Hugh Hefner or the guy who married Anna Nicole Smith. Human nature has always favoured the old rich dude. Woman have always been portrayed less than kindly when they hit a certain age.
I don't know where you live, but if these type of stereotypes aren't prevalent, you must live in a very special place.

You are wrong Ceilli. There are plenty of examples of powerful men being mocked for their younger women. Charlie Sheen is being ridiculed for his young women, and Newt Gingrich isn't being treated too well either.

And contrast that Katie Couric did just fine with her much younger boyfriend and Tina Turner seems happy.

I'm not wrong, there are exceptions to every rule. Katie is no longer with her "boy"friend and while Tina's lover is 16 years younger, it isn't the normal stretch in a female male relationship, it's not like Hugh's obsession with everything 60 years younger.
Again, I'm not saying it completely unusual, but when you see multitudes of ancient women walking around Bangkok, as an example, with their teenage lovers, we'll discuss it further. Until then, you've just proven that with google anyone can find the bizarre...

I didn't say anything about prevalence. We are talking about social acceptance. I am just pointing out that based on real examples your claim about stereotypes is exaggerated at best. You haven't offered any evidence to back up your claim other than a Hugh Hephner and a single Family guy episode. I don't know how else to rebut your claims other than to point out examples we both know about.

I don't know why you bring up ancient men with teenage lovers. This is certainly not socially acceptable in US culture.

I thought an older rich guy with a young women is a sugar daddy,
a young man being with an old rich woman is called a gigolo...
if she has no money he's got an Oedipus complex.

Actually the word to call the guy is "boy toy". That is at least what I refer to my husband.