Review: Beautifulpeople.com

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You may have heard of the controversial dating site beautifulpeople.com when CNN covered its decision last month to cleanse its membership of about 5,000 people because they had gained weight over the holidays. You can only join if existing members deem you attractive enough, and the added pounds were reason enough to be expelled.
 
When I first heard about beautifulpeople.com, I was repulsed. What a superficial concept, I thought. But my curiosity was piqued, and I wondered, what is it like in the inner realms of this "exclusively beautiful community?"
 
So I decided to do a little investigative journalism, and (for research purposes only) applied for an account. I don’t know what I was expecting to find when I signed up. I definitely never expected to meet a model. But I’ll get back to that.
 
The photo I chose for my application is very flattering and a little deceiving. It is one of those rare photos where the lighting happens to be just right, not a hair is out of place and the body is angled perfectly. It is definitely not an accurate representation of myself. But I needed to infiltrate the ranks.
 
After you fill out your application, there is a 48-hour probation period where existing members rate your photo on a scale from one to ten. At the end of the 48 hours, if your average rating is high enough, you get in. There is no minimum number of people who have to rate you. In 48 hours, only five people judged my photo.
 
During the rating period, you have limited access to the site. You can browse existing profiles and can send members “friend requests.” Members can also request to be your friend. I got a few, mostly from faraway places like Bosnia and Herzegovina. I rejected them because I wanted to simulate what I would do if I were in earnest using the Web site to make connections. (The site says it is not just for dating, but also “professional relationships.”)
 
Two days later I got an e-mail telling me I had been accepted into the site, with an average rating of 9.17.
 
I was expecting that such a selective site would be a pantheon of models and people who are constantly told they should be models. But a quick browse through the top-rated men and women clued me into a surefire method for anyone who wants in. Ladies: Pose suggestively in a bra. Men: Pose shirtless and flex those rock-hard abs.
 
As a young professional, if I am going to be spending time on a dating site, I want to be able to find people who live near me and are on the same professional level. You cannot search members by education level or profession. Nor can you search members by hobbies or interests (although members can choose to include that information on their personal profiles).
 
Instead, you can search by country, age, city/town and whether or not they are a smoker. So I used those parameters to search for non-smoking men close to my age in my state. I got 13 matches (two were shirtless and ab-flexing). I clicked on the profiles I found attractive (a moment of superficiality) and sent out a couple of friend requests.
 
I had one person accept. It turned out he lives in a town about 45 minutes away from me and his profile says he has a bachelor’s degree from a university in my home state. And it turns out he is a model. Not a supermodel, mind you, but he has appeared in ads for board games and shaving cream. If I were legitimately using this as a dating site, I had potentially found a match.
 
But as a young professional I wasn't exactly overwhelmed by the site's capabilities. Yes, this site could help you find potential dates, but membership is global and the number one emphasis is physical appearance. So you will have to do some weeding. Unless, of course, you are OK with long-distance relationships and/or someone who is attractive but may be lacking in other areas.
 
Also, beautifulpeople.com, with its strong emphasis on the superficial, could make you feel guilty. The site (cruelly, in my opinion) lets you browse through pending applicants who have low ratings and most likely won’t be getting in. They’re not exceptionally attractive, but they are not “ugly” either. When I look at them, I see someone with a genuine smile, someone who looks like he has an adventurous spirit, and someone who looks like he has a great sense of humor.
 
And if I ever did end up hitting it off with anyone I met on the site, something in the back of my mind would constantly nag, “you know this person places looks above all else?”
 
I should note: The site claims it is frequented by model scouts, talent agencies and production companies, so anyone in those fields may find this a useful networking tool. But for any other industry, I would think it would make a bad impression, professionally speaking, to try to make connections this way.
 
When I revealed to the shaving cream model that I was a reporter, and asked his opinion about the site, he said he signed up for the same reason I did: curiosity. He also found the whole concept very superficial.
 
This makes me wonder if beautifulpeople.com has just found a very successful marketing formula, which is to intrigue people into trying out their product, even though it is something they generally would not be interested in.
 
The next step of the experiment: I’m going to upload another deceiving photo, but this time one that captures me at my worst. I wonder how fast I’ll be purged. Stay tuned.
 
If you liked this piece, take a look at this post on the power of using social media to advance your career, or even create a new career.