If only Charles Darwin could see what his work has come to.
In April 2006, Michael Fox, a 26-year old advertising salesman from Sydney, Australia, decided to start a joke dating Web site. People say that it's what's inside that matters, but what they really want is a perfect face, firm butt, and flat stomach, he reasoned. Why not be honest about it?
"Sick of dating Web sites filled with ugly, unattractive, desperate fatsos?" asks Fox's online dating site, Darwin Dating. If so, like thousands of other disappointed online love-seekers, you can submit your photo to the Web site, allow your face to be criticized or ogled by potential dates, and hopefully pass the "natural selection" process and get voted in to an elite club of beautiful people.
"Darwin Dating has been created to better the lives of attractive people and to encourage them to find other attractive people with whom they can breed," the site reads.
At least one other dating Web site is taking the same approach -- weed out the ugly and allow only the handsome to network amongst themselves. Like Darwin Dating, Beautifulpeople also filters out the unattractive by subjecting photos to members' scrutiny.
Beautifulpeople claims to have 120,000 people in 14 countries who have made the beauty cut, while Darwin Dating claims 5,000 members.
It has nothing to do with eugenics, assures Fox. "It's all sort of tongue and cheek." Banned attributes for Darwin daters include hair in the wrong places, saggy boobs, and crooked teeth.
"One interesting aspect is the people who don't get a laugh at it, but think of it as a really good concept and use it as an online dating site that rejects ugly people," Fox says. According to Fox, at least five people have written him to say they've successfully found mates through Darwin Dating.
Beautifulpeople takes the concept seriously, says spokesperson Greg Hodge. "The basic premise is that we all want to be with people we are attracted to, at least initially. Chemistry is important," Hodge says.
Daniel Kruger, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan, says Fox and Hodge are right -- regardless of what people say they're looking for in a mate, at least initially, they do tend to focus on appearance, both on- and off-line. "But rather than seeing this person 20 feet away you're seeing their picture on a computer screen."
Though exclusive online dating Web sites might merely reflect the realities of mate selection, some find them repulsive. In a blog about Darwin Dating, one commenter wrote: "It is conceited and arrogant. Charles Darwin did not write a book on how attractive people should date."
Nowadays, Web users have a plethora of dating sites to choose from. There's even an online dating service for people interested in science and nature, called Science Connection.
Along with a head shot, profiles on Beautifulpeople give brief descriptions of the member, with stats like height, weight, and whether or not the person owns a car. There are no other criteria, such as Darwin Dating's list of no-nos, except a minimum age of 18, a 14.95 UK pounds ($30 US) per month fee, and a clean harassment record. (Applying to Darwin Dating is free.)
Hodge says on average about one in five applicants are voted into membership. In the United States the scrutiny is a bit higher; about one in six are acceptably beautiful. Hodge says there are many more female members than male, because the women are more critical of men's profiles and allow only a few into membership. Hodge says he doesn't have a profile on the site because employees are prohibited. "But I wouldn't have a problem getting in, let's put it that way," Hodge says.
It's slightly easier to break into Darwin Dating, where nearly half of applicants are accepted, much more than the 20% acceptance rate Fox predicted. Still, "I put my photo up and it was rejected," he laughs.
Kerry Grens
mail@the-scientist.com
Links within this article:
Darwin Dating
http://www.darwindating.com/
Beautifulpeople
http://us.beautifulpeople.net/frontpage.asp
Daniel Kruger
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kruger/
B. Goldman, "In sickness and in health," The Scientist, September, 2006.
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/24482/
B. Calandra, "Love in the lab," The Scientist, 15 December, 2003.
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/14332
R. Gallagher, "Shouldn't you be online?" The Scientist, June, 2007.
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53218
Science Connection
http://www.sciconnect.com/index.htm
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[Comment posted 2008-04-28 03:38:51]
[Comment posted 2008-04-25 17:46:25]
[Comment posted 2007-06-25 21:38:50]
Darwin played around with strong eugenics ideas, making some very (typical for his culture) racist remarks. His cousin Francis Galton started the eugenics movement, and there was a strong push for it even in America in the 1920s and 1930s, but Hitler showing what it could come to cooled off the enthusiasm for awhile. And remember the James Bond movie, Moonraker? I can hardly think of eugenics without picturing that "ugly" but sweet and intelligent woman and her friend the "abnormal" giant, who worked for the cause but were going to get left out.
Cute websites now, but who knows what it will come to in the not-so-distant future?
[Comment posted 2007-06-25 17:54:35]
On the other hand, I guess, when you are bored with the conversation, at least you have something nice to look at.
[Comment posted 2007-06-25 15:23:31]
[Comment posted 2007-06-25 14:55:21]
it would be interesting to see whether this approach has better long-term satisfaction results compared to other methods, both internet (e.g., match.com, eharmony.com) and "traditional."
for a long-lasting relationship, perhaps we'll see carbon-dating.com
[Comment posted 2007-06-25 14:40:38]