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Dating site OkCupid, which analyzes it’s users demographics on its OkTrends page, recently published a report called “The REAL ‘Stuff White People Like’” (a play on the tongue-in-cheek website Stuff White People Like). The article searched people’s profile interests by both race and gender and found some interesting trends (for white people at least, they didn’t talk much about other races, which explains the title), however, the most interesting ones were those involving white women, OkCupid’s most fickle and sought after group.
The interests of white men tend to be what you would think of for very stereotypical guy things: beer, sports, juvenile movies, video games, etc. (“The world’s greatest sausagefest”). For white women, there seems to be somewhat of a longing for a bygone lifestyle, with themes of housewifery (romance novels and “a broad selection of Good Housekeeping-type stuff”) and rural living (bonfires, boating, …
… horseback riding, etc.). This is of course somewhat of an odd set of interests, since most users live in large cities and, at least from what I have seen on people’s profiles, are single students/professionals and not homemakers. OkTrends refers to this desire for distinctly un-urban experiences “rural self-mythology,” since if one lives in a city and is doing these things “civilization has come to an end.”
However, this is not to say that women do not enjoy doing these things, but they may wish they could do these things with a potential partner and/or in a more idealized and carefree version of their actual lives. OkTrends sums it up thusly:
“If I had to choose over-arching themes for white people’s lists, for men, I’d go with ‘frat house’ and for women, ‘escapism’. Whether one begot the other is a question I’ll leave to the reader.”
Indeed, this may explain why so many female profiles have qualifiers about what type of guy they have had bad experiences with and the fact that they will not sleep with guys on the first date (although according to many OkCupid users I know, both male and female, this is largely not the case, as even the most anti-casual sex users are “just looking to fuck”).
Ladies, are these things true of your online experiences? Are you looking to “escape” or “fuck?” Guys, are you really all part of the “sausagefest?” Discuss.
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If I wanted to get laid, I’d go to a bar, not the internet.
I don’t find it hard to believe that a lot of hard-working young city dwellers long for things they don’t have.
But it *is* very possible to both live in a city, and do a lot of outdoorsy things. In fact, as a mountain-person, I strongly advocate city-living as a way to control and lower the impact of people, and keep my beloved wilderness wild. this is done far more effectively when people live in the city and recreate in the wild than if the wild is tamed by settlement.
I read an article on Mashable that did detail the findings of the other races too: http://mashable.com/2010/09/08/okcupid-race/
Some of the results (see the pictures at the bottom) are hilarious.
I’d never go to a dating site. Mostly because if my husband and I were split, I wouldn’t date. I’d much rather live with my friends and my son and be single. But hypothetically: I’m an MMORPG 3rd Edition D&D IM-addicted white female with a full-time job!
[...] want to preserve this space that gives them respite from unreasonable expectations (and perhaps why so many women on OkCupid claim to like outdoor activities despite living in urban areas). While I am not arguing that men do not enjoy outdoor activities, culture does seem to create for [...]