Nobody can match the London review of books for personals:
========================================================= "My hobbies include crying and hating men. F, 29. Box no. 8620."
"I hate you all. I hate London. I hate books. I hate critics. I hate this magazine, I hate this column and I hate all the goons who appear in it. But if you have large breasts, are younger than 30 and don't want to talk about the novel you're 'writing' I'll put all that aside for approximately two hours one Saturday afternoon in January. Man, 33. Box no. 7810. "
"Young, charming, thoughtful, attractive, sporty, zesty, intelligent. None of these are me, but if you'd like to spend an afternoon or more considering alternative adjectives to be applied to 53-year old cantankerous dipshit, write now to box no. 0927. :"
"This advert formally ends the period of my life I like to jokingly refer to as 'the years I spent a lot of money on drugs' and begins the phase I hope will be known in the very near future as 'the weekend I had sex with that guy'. Woman, 32. Box no. 9830. "
"My favorite Ben & Jerry’s is Acid-Boiled Bones of Divorce Lawyer,”
“Tell me I’m pretty, then watch me cling"
“I wrote this ad to prove I’m not gay. Man, 29. Not gay. Absolutely not.”
There have been books written collecting these. "They call me naughty Lola" and "Sexually I'm more of a Switzerland".
On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 11:21 AM, Dennis Claxton
<ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Wojtek's trenchant analyses of U.S. society notwithstanding, there are
> other, sometimes more interesting, sources. Here's one:
>
>
> Jan 13 - Feb 19, 2011
> R. Luke DuBois
> A More Perfect Union
>
> bitforms gallery is pleased to present a second solo exhibition with New
> York based artist R. Luke DuBois. Melding romance and U.S. geography,
> DuBois' new project is a follow up to his Hindsight is Always 20/20, which
> examined vision of the American presidency.
>
> A More Perfect Union looks at American self-identity through the medium of
> online dating services. Culling data from over twenty online dating sites,
> the work is organized according to the same heuristics as the U.S. Census,
> sorting dating profiles by Congressional District and subjecting the imagery
> and text to statistical analysis.
>
> "Online dating forces us to engage in a vulnerable act of articulating our
> self-identity in a semi-public forum for the express purpose of being
> wanted," says DuBois. "To read a thoughtful dating profile or view a profile
> photo is to view the precarious expression of someone else's desires."
>
> Revealing a 'dating lexicon' of each state, DuBois built maps using the
> words provided by 16.7 million people describing themselves and those they
> desire. Comprised as a romantic atlas of the United States, each regional
> geography uses keywords from dating profiles in lieu of the city and town
> names.
>
> In a second printed series, maps of the entire country are colored in a
> 'red-state/blue-state' pattern, showing how different adjectives (such as
> 'shy' and 'lonely') are spread across the country among women and men.
> "Matching” an array of photographic images from the dating census in a video
> diptych, profile pictures are separated by gender and sequenced according to
> their Congressional District. The photos are aligned so that eyes in each
> portrait are centered. The faces flash by and blur, too quickly to recognize
> individuals, resulting in a gestalt impression of a dating pool and, by
> inference, American society as it presents itself as potential romantic
> interest.
>
> See the maps here:
>
> http://perfect.lukedubois.com/
>
> http://culture.wnyc.org/blogs/gallerina/2011/jan/24/art-online-dating/#
>
>
> The Art of Online Dating
>
>
> From 'Booger' in Staten Island to 'PMS' in the Bronx, an intriguing new
> Chelsea exhibit maps the words New Yorkers use in searching for a mate.
>
>
> Monday, January 24, 2011 - 12:00 AM
>
> By Carolina A. Miranda
>
> In 2008, Manhattan-based artist and programmer R. Luke DuBois set up an
> account at Match.com. As a dating venture, the effort was a bit of a bust.
> "I didn't end up really meeting anybody," he explains. But DuBois was
> fascinated by the way people presented themselves online and quickly
> discovered that by manipulating small details in his own profile (such as
> listing the zip code of a neighborhood one over from his own), a completely
> different set of possible matches would emerge. “I started playing it like a
> video game,” he says of the process, “where I would change things in my
> profile to see how it affected things.”
> []
> DuBois's pieces overlay maps with frequently used words in online dating
> profiles. Staten Island's north shore provides an electic selection that
> includes 'Erasmus,' 'Booger,' 'Meatballs' and 'Goo.' (Courtesy of R. Luke
> DuBois and Bitforms Gallery)
> In some cases, neighborhoods fit their stereotypes ('Publishing,'
> 'Obnoxious' and 'Baby' all appear for Park Slope); other times they do not
> ('Yeats' is popular in the vicinity of Sheepshead Bay).
> Carolina Miranda
>
> This exercise led DuBois to sign up for 21 different dating sitesincluding
> the hook-up service AdultFriendFinder.comso that he could quantitatively
> analyze the most commonly used words in dating profiles. He used the data to
> create a series of maps that showcase the most frequently used words by
> geography. New York City’s most frequently used online dating word, for
> example, is 'Now'confirming just about every Type A stereotype of our
> town's inhabitants. (In Chicago, incidentally, it’s 'Always'. And in L.A.,
> 'Acting.') For big cities, DuBois was able to break the data down further,
> narrowing down the most frequently used online dating words to individual
> zip codes. (He analyzed more than 410,000 profiles for New York City alone.)
> The maps are now on view at the Bitforms Gallery in Chelsea.
>
> So what does all of this reveal about New York? Well, it seems we are quite
> colorful when it comes to describing ourselves. 'Meatballs', 'Booger' and
> 'Erasmus' are big in Staten Island. 'Sexist' pops up in Queens (in Breezy
> Point, to be exact)as does 'Atonement,' 'PhD' and 'XXX.' In some cases,
> neighborhoods fit their stereotypes ('Publishing,' 'Obnoxious' and 'Baby'
> all appear for Park Slope); other times they do not ('Yeats' is popular in
> the vicinity of Sheepshead Bay). The bizarre trifecta of 'Hustler,' 'PMS'
> and 'Swelling' is in the Bronxwhile Manhattan is home to high-end living
> words such as 'Finance,' 'Luxury' and 'Brunch.' Most interestingly, the word
> 'Ganja' is popular in WNYC’s West SoHo zip code (leading me to wonder what
> the heck is going on at the office after hours).
>
> Last week, I spoke with DuBois, who explained his fascination with online
> dating and how New York is different from the rest of the country in it’s
> choice of words.
>
> Why this obsession with people’s online dating profiles?
>
> Online dating is this weird thing. You put up this profile, with a photo and
> you have to say who you are and what kind of person you want to be with. And
> the part where you say who you are, you kind of fudge ityou lie. It’s a
> highly idealized version of yourself you’re putting out there. I’ve seen the
> profiles of friends of mine and I’m like, 'Really, that’s you? You’re not
> funny or outgoing.'
>
> You surveyed the entire country, what popped out at you from the initial
> results?
>
> The only places where people will use negative adjectives about themselves
> are New York and Chicago. I think it’s because those are the only places
> that the singles communities are cynical enough to get away with that kind
> of honesty. Where people will say things like ‘I’m a micromanaging bitch’ or
> ‘I’m a workaholic jerk.’ In smaller communities people are more idealistic
> and romantic.
>
> What does the popularity of the word 'now' in New York profiles say about
> the city’s culture?
>
> It’s probably because we’re all A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder) I’d say
> that the funniest thing about New York is that people are very specific
> about name-checking their day. They like to name what neighborhood they work
> in and what restaurants they ate at. People in Phoenix won’t do that. But in
> New York, a woman might write: 'My day is crazy because I work in Gramercy
> and I live in Brooklyn and I want a guy who takes me to Pastis.'
>
> What other elements set New York apart?
>
> Big cities like Chicago and New York have a broader range of vocabulary that
> people use. It was really interesting to see it. On Manhattan’s Upper East
> Side, for example, you get words like 'transcendent.' I mean, who uses
> 'transcendent' in a dating profile? The whole DUMBO/Brooklyn Heights area is
> pretty funny, too. You get works like 'dick' and 'graphic' and 'artisanal,'
> as well as 'postmodernism' and 'cheese.'
>
> Was there one word that stood out to you above all others? My favorite one
> is in the Bronx, and it’s 'ex.' It’s right in the middle [in the Belmont,
> East Tremont area]. I always wonder, is it 'ex' for 'ex-wife' or
> 'ex-convict' or 'ex-novelist'?
>
> It could be anything. You can sort of dream it and imagine the context in
> which it has been said.
>
> Given what you've learned about online dating profiles, if you had to write
> one today, what would it say?
>
> 'Artist seeks muse.'
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow Grist Blog: http://www.grist.org/member/1598 Static page: http://www.nohairshirts.com