STOOD - Fauxfiles

Profiles on dating sites are advertisements. Yes, if you put up a picture of Kristen Bell and say you’re a trust fund baby and swimsuit model people would grow suspicious but otherwise people seem pretty comfortable providing false advertising.

I went out with a woman who said she was 32 on her profile. Turns out she’s 39. But people tell her she looks young all the time so she thought she’d put down 32.

I went out with another who said she was single. But it turns out her divorce isn’t final yet, so forget the fact that single and divorced are separate categories, she’s still married.

These are more extreme examples, but I think people pad their dating resumes pretty often. And of course I understand why and can’t really blame them. If everyone’s taking performance enhancing drugs, you have to take some to stay competitive. But for me it’s counterproductive. Often the padding, while meant to be attractive, drives me away.

According to dating profiles most girls:

Are avid sports fans (both watching and playing)

Love hiking and camping

List beer as one of their primary interests (less so on LDS sites)

Love dogs

Love guns

Love running marathons

Love rock and country music

Now, some girls like many of these things. And many girls like some of these things. But I don’t think most girls like most of these things. They aren’t exclusively male traits, but they are things that I think women think men find appealing.  But mostly these aren’t things I’m thrilled about. I like camping every now and again, but it’s not one of my top 100 activities. Guns are fine, but me shooting one is not one of the 10 pictures of myself I’m going to include.

It’s possible that everyone’s being as honest as they can be, and do like these things. It’s even more probable as I’m in Arizona and things like camping, guns and country music are more prominent. But I have a hard time believing so many of the girls online have these interests. And by trying to seem more attractive to certain men they make it less likely that guys (ie me) who may actually share more of their interests actually get interested.

But maybe I just need to start loving dogs.