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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: 5, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:17PM
Okay, I am packing my bags and pissed on my bosses desk this morning. Now, where is this island of paradise you speak of?
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:45PM
LOL!!
Bonus points if the boss is sitting at his desk at the time. ;-)
Why burn a bridge when you can nuke it!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:34PM
To be fair his boss was packing his own bags at the time of the incident.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Noble713 on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:46PM
Okinawa, Japan.
Honestly, if you are going to move to Asia for the women, there are FAR better places to go than here. Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Hong Kong, Hell even Thailand and the Philippines. Come to Okinawa for the surfing and scuba diving, but not the women.
I find mainland Japanese women are much better educated, more open-minded, slightly more rational (they are still women, after all), but more materialistic. A lot of guys love it here but I'm not a huge fan of hip-hop culture-fetish clubrats and 30+ year old "leftover" women who have banged half the Marine Corps and Air Force.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:40PM
They must still be working on the rest. As an aside, my grandmother was from Okinawa, she was pretty awesome.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @04:02PM
Umm.. Phrasing?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @08:09PM
She was awesome for me too.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 29 2015, @05:18PM
Japan is one such. Millions of girls in their 20's and 30's who get to leave work at 5:30 while their male peers are expected to slave away until 9:30 and then go out drinking with the guys. The girls, having a 4 hour headstart on the men, are pretty much ready to hook up by 9pm. If you are non-Japanese, especially with blond hair and blue eyes, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Be aware, though, that the window of opportunity pretty much closes by age 35. If you're older than that, you're just "tskebe" (creepy, lecherous).
Washington DC delenda est.