Internet dating sites came about long before Twitter or Facebook and opened up the idea of connecting online prior to meeting in real life. There was a stigma attached to Internet dating in its early years, mostly because it was new and people weren't sure who they were meeting "on the other side."
Slowly, it became more of the norm to get to know someone online prior to meeting -- almost like a pre-screening tool. However, the pre-screening was set by the user, not the online dating company.
Welcome to 2010 and yet another Internet dating company: BeautifulPeople.com. Right away, I'm turned off by the name because it's shallow and self-righteous. What is beautiful to one person might not be beautiful to another but this company needs a serious spanking. Why? Read on.
This is what you will read when you enter the website of BeautifulPeople.com:
- Do looks matter to you, when it comes to selecting a partner?
- Do you want to guarantee your dates will always be beautiful?
- No more filtering through unattractive people on mainstream sites.
Granted, we are all human and yes, a person's looks are what initially attracts us. However, who is this company to decide who is beautiful or not? Are there certain standards? Yes. You'd better be drop dead gorgeous and if you're not model-thin, don't bother.
BeautifulPeople.com has a "strict ban on ugly people" and according to Robert Hintze, founder of BeautifulPeople.com. "Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded."
Fatties? Ugly people? Who is this guy and what right does he have to have a site that filters out what he calls "fatties"?
Oh, that's right, it's his site. He looks like a typical pretty-boy who is likely to have a bigger ego than his spare parts. Ahem.
BeautifulPeople.com founders Greg Hodge, left, and Robert Hintze
In addition to being beautiful to get voted in as a member of the BeautifulPeople site, you had better not slip up when it comes to adding on the pounds. You may be thrown to the curb by other members who deem you no longer beautiful. According to the company statement, if your profile is flagged for gaining weight, you will be told to register again when the pudge is gone.
If you're deemed a "fatty" and expelled from the site, suggestions for boot camps and workout facilities to get yourself back in shape are ever so kindly sent to your email inbox.
So if you're shallow and think you're the cat's meow, then by all means go to this site to meet other shallow people with perfect bodies and gorgeous faces. Who cares if they aren't nice people? They are beautiful, right?
For the rest of us, there's a big positive we can take away from a website created just for "beautiful" people: the shallow people will all congregate on this elite site so we won't have them clogging up the sites that are for people who are beautiful from the inside out.
Comments
Nice piece but there is a problem with using Marilyn as your primary argument against the site. Marilyn Monroe being a "size 12, not 14" at her heaviest means she was closer to a size 6 or 8 in today's sizes. In the 1940's and 1950's a 12/14 was nowhere near what a 12/14 today is. Marilyn Monroe was 117 lbs and 5'5 1/2 when she died and was 140 at her heaviest.
From About.com
"Double It
A general rule of thumb is to double your regular size to get your ideal vintage size. So if you wear a Gap size 6, your size for anything made before the 90s will be around a 12. This doesn't mean you don't have to try things on, but it's a good place to start.
Keep in mind that there is no reason to worry about a bigger size if the fit is correct and flattering. If Marilyn Monroe was a size 12, what does it matter if you're a size 10
Good points---but at 140lbs or a size 10...or even a 12...this site would consider that "fat". I've looked at the people on the site and there are no size 10s...or 8's. This was a general statement and I realize that sizes have changed over the years and yes, I did my research. She was a size 14 at her heaviest and at THAT size she would have been rejected. It was put out there as if she were put on the dating site in HER time...not now. It wasn't about Marilyn Monroe--she was used because she was a very beautiful woman in her time and was also not a waif. I was not comparing her to present day sizes. Missing the point here..this site doesn't want "fatties" of any kind. Unless you're reed thin, best stay off the site. 117 lbs is probably too heavy. People put themselves into diet hell for sites like this. VERY Sad.
PS....no where in the article is Marylin Monroe my "primary argument". There is a picture and the caption is "would Marilyn Monroe be cut from the site? She was a size 14 " It was food for thought and a side note--and not part of the article itself. Don't read into these things too deeply :) It was just an "Aside".
Just checked out the site. Don't see any prohibitions against intelligence, education or emotional depth. Come to think of it, how bigoted is the assumption that such elements are automatically absent in those who exclude us on the basis of looks? We all exclude most others in exactly that way. As for beauty, pleasant though the fairy tale may be, everyone knows it is not in the eye of the beholder. Not really. If that were a fact, there could be no cosmetics industry, no fashion industry, and no Hollywood sex symbols (including the incomparably fine, but let's face it, slightly pudgy, Monroe). Also. This just in. Being attractive and cocky does not shrink your junk.
Fat person perspective but your entitled to it.
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