An online site for hotties only
NEW YORK — Internet, Internet, on the screen, who's the fairest you've ever seen?
That answer just might be found at BeautifulPeople.net, the exclusive online networking enclave for gorgeous guys and gals. Think: MySpace meets "Elimidate."
When applying, a message warns: "All members/new applicants are required to add a photo of themselves to their profile, so have a good picture ready. Your appearance will influence whether or not the existing members will vote you in." Wannabes must also provide their occupation, income, car- and home-ownership status. After three days of Hot-OrNot-style voting, potentials are informed whether they're in or ugly.
The Web site was born in Denmark after creator Robert Hintze found mainstream dating Web sites only delivered displeasing-looking singletons. BeautifulPeople then spread to Sweden and the United Kingdom before landing stateside last July. The site now boasts about 9,000 mostly busty babes and shirtless male members (who pay upward of $260 a year for access) out of over 50,000 who've applied.
A visit to BeautifulPeople poses the question: Are all those clichés and Christina Aguilera lyrics about beauty true? Is it really only skin deep? Is it in the eye of the beholder? Are we beautiful no matter what they say? The Associated Press talked to Greg Hodge, BeautifulPeople's managing director:
Lesson No. 1: Beautiful people like to party.
"It's certainly more than just about beauty," says Hodge. "People fly from the U.K or the States or wherever to the various parties that are held. The members can post their own events whether they've got a table at Bungalow 8 or are having a pool party in L.A. or whatever the case may be."
Lesson No. 2: Beautiful people discriminate — but so do smart people.
"Discrimination is prevalent from modeling agencies to the national football team," Hodge says when asked if BeautifulPeople is vapid. "They all go through a selection process based on their natural ability or natural talents. Mensa is exactly the same.
"With BeautifulPeople, instead of being told by one person or a small group of people you're not good enough, you're being rated by your peers and it has become an accurate gauge of what American society's idea of beauty is."
Lesson No. 3: Beautiful women are gold diggers, too.
"There's definitely some very different ways people consider beauty," Hodge explains. "Men — bless us — tend to vote on women based solely on how they look, regardless of social status or what they might do. Whereas women tend to look at the overall bigger picture. A lot more of the materialistic aspects come into play. They'll vote in a man based on what he might do, whether he's got an upwardly mobile job, how much money he might earn, things like that."
Lesson No. 4: Beautiful people can't become unbeautiful.
"That's a tough question," Hodge answers when asked if membership can be revoked following a disfiguring car crash or bad plastic surgery. "Once they've been voted in and go through this rating ordeal, they do bond. It's a tight-knit community and they're quite protective of it. And they do build very, very solid friendships.
"The beauty thing is only the first hurdle. Once they're in there, they get to know a lot more about each other's character and genuine friendships are built. So if someone had an accident or something, I'm sure they'd all pull together and be very supportive."