When it comes to dating apps, Lulu is basically the antithesis of the terrible pick up lines that guys ceaselessly dole out on Tinder messaging boards. It’s a networking platform that enables women to discuss the men they know, who have also signed up for the app, and give them reviews so fellow ladies know what they’re getting into before they meet up with a potential date out in the real world. (Yes, the world of online dating is a terrifying place.)
In order to rate these men – who, again, have willingly signed up for this service – stay with me – the women answer multiple choice questions (“When he tells a joke, I…”) as well as check off a series of prewritten hashtags that disclose the good things and the bad things about the guy in question, like #DudeCanCook, #PlaysGuitar or #OnlyWearsFratTanks (that’s a bad thing). From this info, girls can check a guy’s review before choosing to go on a date with him, as if she got feedback from friends; the point is to bring the “power of girl talk” to a dating app.
After launching in February of 2013, Lulu has millions of users, both men and women, who use the app to put themselves out there, weigh in on their single guy friends (the app connects to Facebook), and get a grasp on who they’re potentially going to meet in real life. Now, Lulu has gathered the data that they’ve accumulated since launching to find out what kind of guys are living in a particular area.
That’s right – they’ve collected the outlying, aka most-selected, hashtags in Boston and its surrounding areas to showcase the habits and traits of guys living here who use the app. It’s a small sample pool, sure, but when #SkinLikeButta is in the mix of descriptors, we’re listening.
Alexandra Chong, Lulu’s founder, weighed in on the Boston trends. Chong guessed that answers like “MothersLoveHim and #CanTalkToMyDad might be attributed to Cambridge’s population of “smarties at MIT and Harvard.” (Just keep in mind that these smarties were often listed as having #DeathBreath.)
Chong also admitted that you can never know exactly why the local women answer the way they do:
We also see the impact of suburban sprawl. Guys in suburban Somerville get praised with #GreatDriver. And we see things we can’t explain. Why do men in Newton have #SkinLikeButta? What makes dudes in Brookline the #TotalPackage? Your guess is as good as ours.
Take a look at the infographic compiled by Lulu below to see what the app’s users think of guys in Boston, Newton, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville. You may not be able to explain it, but you will get a good laugh out of it.
Images via Lulu
