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Andrew Marantz has an interesting read in The New Yorker about Lulu, a mobile app already downloaded five million times that allows female users of Facebook to make positive and negative evaluations of male users on the basis of their romantic, personal, and sexual appeal. Lulu is rigidly heteronormative—only women can rate men—and women tend to use Lulu the way someone investigating a potential mate a generation ago might have sought out the town busybody.
“It’s one of these rare products that evokes only strong reactions,” says Sam Altman. “No one feels ambivalent about it.” To rate a man on Lulu, a woman selects from a battery of pre-written hashtags—some positive (#LifeOfTheParty, #DoesDishes), some negative (#Boring, #DeathBreath), and some ambiguous (#DrivesMeCrazy, #CharmedMyPantsOff, #PlaysDidgeridoo). Those responses are distilled into a harshly precise numerical score. Alexandra Chong calls her startup “a community where women can talk honestly about what matters to them.” Others have called it Yelp for men. “Of course people on Lulu talk about sex,” says Chong. “Sex is part of what women talk about.”
A man must grant his permission for a Lulu profile to be created on his behalf, and, perhaps surprisingly, most men consent, says Chong. “We try to tell men, ‘Women on Lulu are building men up, not just tearing them down.'” Many women use Lulu for caveat-emptor purposes, such as managing expectations before a date. “One guy I went out with had a lot of hashtags like #OneTrackMind," says Sarah Burns, "so I dressed conservatively, didn’t drink too much—I tried to send the message, I’m not going home with you tonight. Which I didn’t.”
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anne Nonymous on Wednesday April 29 2015, @01:51PM
> a community where women can talk honestly about what matters to them.
> #PlaysDidgeridoo
I had no idea.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:13PM
I'm curious if that is a good or bad thing. Maybe it's a sophistication thing?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:28PM
I guess that depends on whether you like Didgeridoo music. And of course on whether he's good at it. After all, the tag isn't "#PlaysDidgeridooWell"!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:31PM
I have read this several times in a row and it never stops being funny.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by romlok on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:38PM
I assumed it was a euphemism.
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Wednesday April 29 2015, @05:23PM
I assumed it was a euphemism.
In context it didn't sound universally bad or good but depends on the individual woman.
Playing the instrument involves men putting a phallic shape up to their lips. So I guess chix who like MMF 3somes would in some transitive fashion like a dude who can really give a digeridoo a good tongue lashing because it would please the other M in the MMF, but the vast majority who aren't into MMF would not find it appealing and even girls who are into MMF are not going to find M-M action interesting, unless they just like to watch. So that kinda fits in context.
Another interpretation is the players do some weird stuff with puffy flabby cheeks to make their faces into human bagpipes to play continuously. I have absolutely no idea how that could be good or bad and trust me I've seen a lot of pr0n and have an excellent imagination, so I'm thinking this isn't the correct interpretation. It could be some weird extended analogy where he likes puffy flabby stretched out cheeks which flows from face cheeks to posterior cheeks which converts from playing a musical instrument to he likes women with giant rear ends, which I guess could be seen as good or bad by various women depending on their personal size back there.
Being a loud and obnoxious phallic shaped musical instrument maybe it means he's really loud in bed, which I guess could be a positive or negative.
The only other euphemism I can think of its a Fing annoying and obnoxious noise generator of a musical instrument, which probably doesn't have any positive connotation at all.
For the good of science we must figure this out. Its eating away at me, not knowing WTF this nonsense means. Perhaps EthanolFueled can ask EthanolaFueled for us.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Flyingmoose on Wednesday April 29 2015, @08:19PM
I think it's more of a hipster thing. You sure think about penises a lot though.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday April 29 2015, @08:42PM
Well they started it with the freaking didgeridoo, I can't help what the thing looks like.
If they had #spelunker or #cavernExplorer @tourOfTheGrandCanyon then we'd be talking about girlie fun-parts to be on topic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 30 2015, @02:48AM
The vaginal canal is a pipe too. You can try to rationalize your obsession with phalluses all you want, but its still pretty gay to see dicks everywhere and in everything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 30 2015, @08:45AM
Anonymous Coward confirms it: Internet is gay.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday April 30 2015, @03:19PM
"Don't you ever have to breath?"
"It's called circular breathing." Replied Deborah. "The Australian Aboriginals developed it to play their didgeridoos, it means they can keep blowing forever. All New York Jewish girls are taught it, that's how we get to marry such rich men."
-- Gridlock, by Ben Elton.
(Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Wednesday April 29 2015, @05:25PM
BRB looking into sexual applications of circular breathing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 30 2015, @12:33AM
You could spit-shine the pearl for hours if you didn't have to come up for air.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 30 2015, @03:40AM
Gave it up. If she won't polish my rod I will not polish her pearl.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday April 30 2015, @05:53AM
I never really understood this sort of thinking - similar to the "have to come up for air when kissing". Do people not know how to use their nose, or what? I mean our faces come equipped, standard, with a double-barreled orifice optimized specifically for breathing, even when our mouths are otherwise occupied - does nobody read the owner's manual?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @05:36PM
Actually, he probably doesn't snore.