From the Fringe | 16.11.2009

Skin-deep dating site spells bad news for sloppy Brits

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Model Heidi Klum might make the cut, but a lot of Brits don't

Beauty may only be skin deep, but for the people at the online dating Web site BeautifulPeople.com, those few millimeters of dermis make all the difference.

Their dating web site only allows people to join who have been deemed "beautiful" by other members. Apparently, that's bad news for the Brits.

Personality, schmersonality. The Danish-run online dating service BeautifulPeople.com is a one-of-a-kind membership club "for beautiful people only."

Calling itself "the largest network of attractive people in the world," the site is based on the premise that beautiful people only want to date their own kind - and saves members the drudgery of "filtering through all those unattractive people on mainstream sites."

Jury of your peers

BeautifulPeople might be shallow, but you can't say it isn't democratic. People who want to sign up for the dating service are required to post a photo, and within 48 hours the other members - that's the folks who were already vetted and deemed attractive enough to be part of the club - decide whether or not to give the applicant a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.

This process has inadvertently unearthed a piece of information that has hit London like the biggest bomb since the Blitz. According to data gathered by the site, Britons are among the ugliest folks on the planet.

Scandinavian bias?

Fewer than one in eight British men - and just three out of 20 English roses - have been accepted for membership so far, the site's organizers told the Reuters news agency.

Swedish men have proved the most successful, with 65 percent being accepted, while Norwegian women are considered the most beautiful with 76 percent accepted, the Web site said.

The site was founded in 2002 in Denmark - its origins may or may not account for the pro-Scandinavia bias in voting. Since it went live world-wide, in October, the site has rejected nearly 1.8 million people from 190 countries, and has admitted just 360,000 new members.

BeautifulPeople director Greg Hodge told Reuters that Brits poor showing was due to the fact that they are "are letting themselves down on fitness," and lack a polished appearance.

Those grumpy Germans

Germans didn't do too well either - just 15 percent of men and 13 percent of women got the OK from their beautiful peers. But their grooming and fitness aren't at fault.

Instead, Hodge told Reuters, the poor performance is accounted for by the infamous Teutonic tendency to suffer from Weltschmerz.

"The Germans... are submitting stern images," he said. "They need to soften up."

Author: Jennifer Abramsohn

Editor: Kyle James

antigrafikon from DW