A new “study” came out recently (more like an informal poll just for kicks) by an artist named R. Luke DuBois. He wanted to see how Americans viewed themselves according to online dating profiles, and color-code it by congressional districts on a map (like the red vs blue states). What he ended up getting was a lot of purple hues.
He picked out some common words people used to describe themselves. Shy, funny, lonely and…ahem…kinky made his list.
The brighter the colors, the more people used the word to describe themselves in their profiles. (Red= more women, blue=more men, purple=both). The map above shows the number of people who describe themselves as lonely (pretty bright, so a lot of them).
Take a look now at the “funny” map. Not so bright…which means people tended to NOT describe themselves as funny.
I thought it was interesting that people were more eager to depict themselves negatively—as “shy” or “lonely” rather than “funny”. Although I have to say, Californians and New Yorkers seemed to consider themselves more funny than lonely. Maybe that’s because of the entertainment industry, or maybe we’re hard-wired to deny that our lives aren’t anything but fabulous.
Then there are the peeps who most often call themselves “kinky”. Mostly from Virginia and the Southwest (Arizona, anyone??) Interesting.
The good part comes when he maps out individual cities with the most common words he found in dating profiles.
Here is the map of my fair city of L.A. Phony and misogynistic..okay. It’s Hollywood. But Diabolical Touching? Huh. Not sure if I’d describe myself like that in an online profile. Maybe that’s two words, two areas… And I don’t know what to do with Whip and strangled. Any thoughts? (FYI…”spanking” appeared in Beverly Hills.)
And here is New York. I like that Ganja kind of borders luxury. Huh. Oh, and people in Chinatown think of themselves as “fleshy”. Not sure what “September” is all about.
For what it’s worth, it’s an interesting idea. To me, it says people reveal way too much in their profiles.
About Kelly Seal
Kelly is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, CA. She blogs about dating, relationships, personal growth and what "healthy living" means to her. You can follow her on Google+, Twitter @kellyseal or through her website www.kellyseal.com.
Wow, I used to think that it was silly that anyone would hire someone to write a dating profile for them, but after seeing this I think it shows what a big need there is for such writers. These people are misguided at best to have some of these words appear in their profiles. Worst case, they may need professional help that goes beyond simply hiring someone to write their profile:)