It's the kind of site that, I assumed, would be right at home on Indian soil. BeautifulPeople (.com) is reserved not for those merely interested in the dating game, but only those adjudged beautiful enough to play it
It's the kind of site that, I assumed, would be right at home on Indian soil. BeautifulPeople (.com) is reserved not for those merely interested in the dating game, but only those adjudged beautiful enough to play it. So, as citizen of a country long obsessed with stereotypes and fairness creams, I could hardly be blamed for assuming it was a harebrained scheme thought up in some particularly racist corner of India.
Surprisingly, it was born in Denmark, a place presumably home to a large population of beautiful people. Earlier this year, almost a decade after it went live, the site knocked off 5,000 accounts. They belonged to users who -- according to a rating system used by other users -- were no longer good-looking enough to make the cut. Apparently, a few kilograms gained over year-end festivities had tilted the odds against them.
Now, you would think this sort of blatant disregard for the majority of us ugly folk would be a deterrent. The creator of the site begs to disagree though. He believes beauty plays a huge role in determining why many of us would approach a particular stranger in a bar, and justifies the presence of his niche site on those lines. He's not the only one with that point of view either.
BeautifulPeople has a few million members (all beautiful, naturally) now operating from a number of countries. Of every 100 application forms filled in, 80 continue to be rejected.
Much as it is in the real world, exclusivity is a prized commodity online. It explains why Dateagolfer (.com) can cater to single lovers of golf, Women Behind Bars (.com) helps you correspond with, um, women behind bars, PositiveSingles (.com) can hook you up with those who test positive for STDs and, until a short while ago, Till-Death-Do-Us-Part (.com) offered an online dating service exclusively for the terminally ill!
As for BeautifulPeople, I'm not sure I'd stand a chance. My lack of interest in dating aside, there's a reason this column doesn't have an accompanying photograph of the author.
-- Lindsay Pereira is Editor, MiD DAY Online
(twitter.com/lindsaypereira)
