Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Fattie Fattie Two By Four


I’ve been considering starting up the whole online dating thing again. Exploring some sites, reading some headlines, etc. I heard about one site that connects scientists with other scientists or “fans” of scientists. That sounds interesting, to connect based on occupation. (Tell me, where are the doctor dating sites?) Today on CNN.com a headline caught my attention:


Dating site expels “fatties.”



Ok, how rude is that??



Or… is it rude?



We are, after all, a capitalist society in which businesses that attract people and keep folks coming back are the ones that succeed.



The dating site BeautifulPeople.com uses a voting system to allow new members. Once your profile is up, you get 72 hours for other members to vote whether you are attractive enough to remain on the site. Since the recent holidays, BeautifulPeople.com has booted 5000 members after those members gained weight and no longer qualified as “beautiful” in the eyes of other members. The managing director, Greg Hodge, said they have a “strict ban on ugly people.” OK, that language is clearly rude. He goes on to say: “Is it elitist? Yes, it is, because our members want it to be. Is it lookist? Yes, it is, because our members want it to be. Is it PC? No, it's not, but it's honest."



Hmmm. Capitalism…I guess. If the site generates profit, I guess that speaks for itself as to whether the voting system works



The company said it "expelled" 1,520 users from the U.S., 832 from the U.K., 533 from Canada, 510 from Poland, 425 from Germany, 402 from Italy, 323 from France, 220 from Denmark, 176 from Turkey and 88 people from Russia. In the e-mail, it gave users suggestions for boot camps and workout facilities to get themselves back in shape. It must have enough members to comfortably take a profit hit of that size. There’s some weird psychological aspect to this dating site… like the polar opposite of “I wouldn’t want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member.” I suppose it boosts many peoples’ egos to be ‘voted in”.



Go here to read the whole article and tell me: Fair or not fair? Nice or not nice? Would you belong to this club?

On the other hand.... I wonder, would THESE models make it onto the site then???? JEEZ!

Wish me luck... it's a dog eat dog world out there in online dating....

(ok, pun intended. I know, corny, corny ;-)

6 comments:

Angela said...

OMG! Those pictures are painful. My ribs suddenly hurt.

Nobody said...

i think the idea of a dating site that so obviously caters to shallow vanity is not cool... but at the same time, no one forced those people to sign up for it. i think someone who would sign up for something of that nature probably needs a little kick in the ego anyways. as for the ones who didn't get kicked out... i guess it's nice that they're hanging out with like minded people. ugh.

Calmil2 said...

OMG....I am horrified!!! That is just disgusting. Well, maybe the people that like the site deserve each other. They can live the rest of their shallow lives unhappy since they will never be satisfied if all they care about is outside appearance...YUCK!!! So, basically I am saying I don't like it, incase my point didn't come across clear enough ;)

M and M said...

I met my sweetheart on match.com and we laugh laugh laugh about it. Let me tell you though, I went through a few duds (stay away from ANY MAN who wears velcro shoes!). Go for it - but be super selective. you know what? I didn't really like my guy on our first date - he seems so nervous and awkward. He tells me "I'm not good at dating but I'm great at relationships." He's lovely - and my life is so much richer for his presence.

Anonymous said...

Those model pictures are photo shopped (go to snopes), which actually makes me feel better knowing that there aren't that many painfully thin models out there. The sad thing is that when Kate Moss came out as the big thing: I think that's just her body type. But then people who weren't naturally like that tried to be, with disastrous results. That site sounds sick but no sicker than Survivor or that horrible show, the Swan, where they fixed up women and THEN kicked them off. danicuz

Kiki said...

Happy that you are going to try a dating site. I think it'll be good for you. If for nothing else it's good to just go out on dates. Don't go with the thought of tyring to find a husband, but go with the thought of having a nice night out or at least a night to blog about the next day because it was so funny or so awful. :-) You know what I mean. Also, Dani already said it but those models were photo shopped, thank God. How awful looking.