Reportedly, SugarRomance.org has a great new offering in the online dating arena–the personal marketing consultant to help pitch you to other members online moderator to help “keep it real”. It’s a fascinating concept, really, having a stranger step in and tell you how best to present yourself (or even make the presentation on your behalf) in order to “keep it real”. The idea says a lot about where we are as a society: presenting yourself honestly and directly is not enough–even in personal relationships you should hire someone to give you the right “spin”.
This “revolutionary” form of online dating with a moderator is billed as “more honest”, because the moderators are vigilantly “weeding out” the fakes and flakes. The practice of charging a fee to men while offering free memberships to women is set forth as a “qualifying meausre” [sic]; the fact that men are willing to pay is supposed to mean that they’re “serious about a mutually beneficial relationship”.
No word on what that says about the women on the site, whose memberships are always free.
I’m curious about just how far into the relationship your friendly neighborhood Cyrano moderator will keep hanging around mediating between the two of you, and what happens to the relationship when it’s no longer being professionally managed.
I’m old-fashioned, I guess, but it still seems to me that the best way to get to know someone is to see and hear them as they are, not as they’ve been professionally packaged.
Here’s a big relief, though: the people who brought us wingmen for hire assure us that with their services, there will be no “questionable moral values”.
[...] on dating sites. In fact, many of them relate closely to the issues I raised in my post about the worst idea in online dating history. I would (for once) agree with him completely if it weren’t for one thing: he’s [...]