The Marketplace of Love

OK, so started the research endeavor with Google, you may have heard of it, and one of the first hits was Wikipedia, another obscure website, stay with me. So I figure, I’m not proud, I’ll start with the basics, a virtual version of online dating for dummies. Upon a quick scan (I’m a very detail-oriented researcher) a few fun facts popped up. Apparently, U.S. denizens shell out the bucks for online dating. In fact, it is second only to pornography. God Bless America. There is something comforting about the fact that people actually want to have sex with someone other than themselves. That is assuming that porn consumers are not also the online daters, eew.
There are currently over 800 online dating sites, a little something for everyone. The most popular niche dating sites seem to revolve around ethnicity and religion. Damn, where does that leave a forlorn white atheist? They include JDate (for Jewish singles), Christian Café, Manhunt (for gay men) gayness is an ethnicity isn’t it? Love From India, Black Christian People Meet, Amigos (for Latino singles), and Asian People Meet (for, you guessed it, Asian singles). Apparently some people define the term “single” loosely and I doubt that the sites that actually do background checks on current marital status. Speaking of niche dating, a friend of mine started online dating two weeks ago so I thought I would get the lowdown on how she is faring thus far.

Why [pray tell] are you doing this to yourself?
I’m in empowerment training program and part of it is to go out and go after what you are missing in your life and I’ve got everything I want, except a good man to share it with. Online dating was one of several strategies offered to address this deficit. Others included putting an ad on Craigslist, having friends set you up or just approaching hot strangers.

How’d you pick your online dating company?
Match.com is full of skinny prepubescent bitches so that was out. A friend told me about the BBW (Big Beautiful Women) site so I joined. It is easy to use cheaper than Match.com and I’ve been getting pretty good responses: in the last week and half 5 to 10 a day. I have no idea how big the database is (pun intended) but there are guys on there of all sizes, thought they tend to be older which is interesting.

Been on any dates yet?
Not yet, I sent out 5 emails and some “flirts,” you have choices of canned messages you can send, when I sent out the “I’m interested” message, no luck, when I sent out the “You’re hot” messages, bingo, they responded. One guy talked about God a lot (is there no escape from these people?) even though I put “Other” in the Religion category. He left me alone after I told him I don’t attend church services. Some will send you a message with their email address, because they don’t want to use the site (cheapskates), which is kind of weird, I don’t want to give them my personal email address. And some will put in things like I’m looking for someone who is loyal, won’t cheat on me and play games, won’t nag me about watching sports, who will let me go out with my friends, will support my growing pornography collection….basically a litany of stuff that he hated about his ex. I don’t respond to those guys. Some guys refused to send me a photo which can’t be a good sign. It was scary first, virtual rejection sucks just like in-person rejection.

So there you have it. One woman putting herself out there in the name of love, good for her and good luck to her and to all you sistas!

Cristina