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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: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:41PM
What's wrong? It's mostly quotes from the article.
Although I heard about Lulu a few months ago.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday April 29 2015, @07:14PM
It is the second obvious gender click-baiting article in 24 hours. Lets some outrage, that will generate some clicks!
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by fleg on Thursday April 30 2015, @02:18AM
but surely click-baiting is only useful if you're getting paid for clicks? and i dont see that happening here (soylentnews).
just for the record, i think the editors do a fine job.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday April 30 2015, @04:27PM
I assume he uses this as a marketing platform for his own blog, but I have no idea if he has ads, because I would rather stab my eyes out than read it. I, too, think the Editors are doing a good job here, they just accept way too many Hugh Pickens stories. Also, if you look at Pickens original submissions, they are usually one giant run-on paragraph. The editors are doing him a giant favor in actually reading and fixing his submissions. I wish they would just reject them outright.
If I had a way to block Hugh Pickens, I would stop bitching about him on every story.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @02:34AM
> If I had a way to block Hugh Pickens,
His name is AT THE TOP OF EVERY FUCKING ARTICLE!
Just fucking ignore them!
HOW FUCKING HARD IS THAT?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday April 30 2015, @03:26AM
It is the second obvious gender click-baiting article in 24 hours. Lets some outrage, that will generate some clicks!
Maybe you should submit something nitehawk. I'm seeing two total from you.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday April 30 2015, @04:29PM
I would rather see far less stories per day then have terrible submissions accepted just to fill some sort of quota. If Soylent dries up without the submissions of one person. then I guess it is time for it to die.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Thursday April 30 2015, @05:28PM
..And if everyone has that attitude, then so it will.. SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop [soylentnews.org].
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams