Breaking down borders in video games.
BeautifulPeople.com removes 5000 overweight members
The front page of the BeautifulPeople.com website, showing testimonials from other sites and a couple snuggling.
Social networking website BeautifulPeople.com (which I didn’t know existed) has banned 5000 members of their website for “letting themselves go” and gaining weight over the holiday season.
There is so much wrong with this, I’m not even sure where to begin. First of all, the fact that the site even exists is discriminatory. It claims “no more filtering through unattractive people on mainstream sites.” It requires all members to approved by a voting panel of the opposite sex. They say “BeautifulPeople does not define beauty it simply gives an accurate representation of what society’s ideal of beauty is.” So, the point is to affirm and enforce society’s ideals? Defining beauty would actually be an improvement over adapting and using the false idealistic sense of beauty that we are suffering from in our society.
BeautifulPeople.com Logo
Today, they actually released a press release that claims that “5000 festive fatties” were banned from their service for gaining weight over the holidays. Apparently, the action came from vigilant members of the site taking action and calling them to be removed. Hey, this isn’t the first time that a majority has taken away rights from a minority, is it? The managing director of the website even was quoted saying “We responded to complaints by moving the newly chubby members back to the rating stage. This is the same as having them re-apply.” Only a few hundred out of the 5000 were allowed back in after the voting process, because they weren’t beautiful enough. This site does not believe that beautiful comes in all sizes, they are quite clear on that through their words and actions. And, they felt the need to release a press release telling the world that they are adhering to these standards.
The founder of the company says “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded”. Why do they insist on calling overweight people fatties and chubbies? I think having a discriminatory managing staff who says things like that is more likely to threaten your business model! However, 550,000 users are active members on this website, and the ones that were removed have been given links to boot camps to improve their fitness so they can return to the site.
BeautifulPeople says that it understands that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but that human beings want to be with people they they are attracted to. They aim to eliminate the need to surf through “ugly people” and just see the cream of the crop in your local area. They also promote the idea of throwing parties and having events that only invite the best looking people. You aren’t voted in to be a member unless you match the definition of beautiful that the opposite sex decides upon. What could go wrong?
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about 8 months ago
*blink blink*
*taps the site on the shoulder*
SHORYUKEN!!!!!! *uppercuts*
about 8 months ago
*blink blink*
*taps the site on the shoulder*
FALCON PUNCH!
about 8 months ago
Wow. I can’t even describe how absolutely horrible that is to read about.
about 8 months ago
I definitely shuddered.
“Apparently, the action came from vigilant members of the site taking action and calling them to be removed.” – WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?! I want to know which ridiculous users actually sought to cast out others. The complaints justify the removal of users who don’t look a certain way? Awful, really.
about 8 months ago
I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but it was probably a bunch of arrogant high schoolers or college students who like to raise themselves up by putting other people down. The kind who judge everyone based off of how they look. This bears all the signs of Gossip Girl style drama.
about 8 months ago
Whew, for a moment I thought I would have to apply to see what all the fuss was about (maybe go in undercover and show how seedy and awful a place it is).
Good thing the opposite sex’s ratings of me /really/ have no relevance to what I think.
about 8 months ago
I’ve been following this blog for a couple of weeks, reading most articles and comments, and I had decided not to write or comment until I felt familiarized enough with the ideals behind this blog. But this time I had to say something myself.
A smile has appeared on my face as I was looking at the site’s banner. Poor me, I was thinking it was a joke. As you can imagine, the smile has quickly disappeared.
The very existence of such a site provides enough material to write an article here. But the fact that they’ve banned a huge number of members because they have ‘slipped’ from their elitist and biased view of beauty is just sick. And knowing they have even announced it to the world, with pride, just makes me wonder, “¿what are these people thinking?”. Because, really, I can’t possibly empathize, put myself in their place. I just can’t.
On the other hand, I also find it difficult to “feel bad” for the victims -the ones who got expelled- in this particular case. Not that there’s anything wrong with gaining weight – but they were members of this discriminatory and insulting site in the first place. They were giving support to the very ideals that now exclude them, and I’m pretty sure that part of that excluded collective would have agreed with – or at least had no problem with – this exclusion had they been on “the other side of the line”. However, I don’t know to which extent do the ex-members complain or accept their membership loss, so I shouldn’t discuss much on that issue.
I just felt the need to say something, about this particular action and about the site itself. These are the kind of things I could never think of, or imagine – until I find they are real, and they even have a loyal crowd of supporters. Makes me sick.
I applaud at Seraphina’s Shoryuken. Couldn’t have come with a better response myself.
about 8 months ago
I almost have a faint hope that some of those kicked can re-examine their inclusion in this site’s practices; but am afraid many may well go off and blame themselves, as they have been taught to do by society.
What is perhaps even worse is thinking how these two industries (beauty exclusion and then weight loss) are feeding off each other:
“However, 550,000 users are active members on this website, and the ones that were removed have been given links to boot camps to improve their fitness so they can return to the site.”
Not speaking for the boot camps themselves, I do wonder how many of those people will go to an extreme in order to become ‘beautiful’ again. I do feel sorry for these people, though, as you state, with a certain amount of disengagement.
about 8 months ago
Hey Tualarec,
About the people who got kicked off the site, I actually do have a lot of sympathy for them. Liss over as Shakesville said it best when she said:
I will concur with the Shoruyken as the proper response. I move that we vote on using that as are standard, “GYAH THIS WORLD SUCKS AND THIS IS THE PROPER RESPONSE” meme.
about 8 months ago
I don’t know… yeah, maybe Liss is right, but these people ARE good looking, or they would not have been members of the site in the first place. Being “beautiful” (and I’m using the site’s definition of the word, not mine) does not make you immune to low self-esteem, but it certainly does not make you any more prone to it. So I still find hard to believe that most of the people who got expelled were there just for that “dearth of esteem”. I mean, it’s a contact/dating site, which removes the “unattractive” from the available options a member has in choosing who to contact. The main reason for the site to exist, and for the people to join it, is that. The “exclusive club for those blessed with attractiveness” thing is just there to boost the members’ egos, but I don’t think it’s the main reason for people to become one. Again, I may be wrong. It’s just the way this whole thing makes me feel.
I was so infuriated and saddened by the main issue that I overlooked the reference to the boot camps, as you pointed out, Denis. It’s true, weight loss industry benefits from the existence of these kind of sites, and this expulsion of the people who cross their “beauty defining line” is just helping their business. I hadn’t thought of that. Makes it even more sad and infuriating.
Besides, looking at the site’s criteria for accepting members, one must assume this site is created, directed and focused on heterosexuals, exclusively, right? I even looked at the site’s web page and read through their terms of agreement and I haven’t found any reference to other sexual orientations. The registration page only asks for you gender (with binary options, “of course”) and nothing else, assuming that if you’re female you are there because you are interested in the male members, and it’s the male members who get to decide whether or not you belong there. Although this is just wrong, it really comes as no surprise, considering how many things are wrong there.
Koipond, you’ve got my vote. Shoryuken is the only answer this site, and its creators, deserve.
about 8 months ago
That’s what immediately got at me when I saw that the voting wasn’t just all members, it was members of the opposite sex. Which has the automatic heterocentrist assumption built into it that it matters to the women what the men think of them, and vice versa. No room for non-hetero sexualities there! Sigh.
Honestly, the entire site’s existence is just one big steaming pile of fail.
about 8 months ago
Tualarec. It’s totally okay to feel that this site is full of wrong. It is. 100% full of wrong, and fail and heternormativity, and that other stuff that the kyriarchy is good at failing at.
However, I’m quite sure that a good number of those people went, “Could I get in” and applied and felt the soothing salve of acceptance when they got in. Yes, the site is exclusive, in that keeping other people out, and the owner needs a swift shoryuken upside the head, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the culture that perpetuates this stereotype and that’s the root of all this garbage.
I have a lot of sympathy for those who are looking for acceptance and will turn to anything in order to get it.
about 8 months ago
I feel dumb for asking, but what is “Shoryuken”?
about 8 months ago
Street Fighter Ryu’s signature move, the punch that gave Sagat his chest scar.
about 8 months ago
My question to them is… before they had 500,000 members, who defined the term ‘beauty’ for them? Did not that person/group of people ultimately funnel in only those who they thought were beautiful and thusly created the standard upon the site? How can this be an accurate definition of what society democratically votes on as being beauty when it was biased to begin with?
about 8 months ago
Hmm, 550,000 active users eh? I think Lt. Raine from Inglorious Bastards said it best. “Each one of you owes me a debt, 550,000 active user scalps, and I do expect you to pay up! Or die tryin.”
about 8 months ago
Wow. On the flip side this might keep a huge chunk of shallow people out of the dating pool (e.g. all those who pushed to remove those 5,000).
about 8 months ago
All people can be assholes (myself included), but this site, and the people who run it, take being an asshole to a whole new level. This disgusts me.
about 8 months ago
Well… *shifty eyes* at least I fully understand what the site is about (assholery) because I never bothered joining because I’m not very photogenic so there are very few pics of myself. But… great headdesking wow–5000?!
Mantheos,
Shoryuken is Ryu’s & Ken’s (along with a few other characters of the Street Fighter franchise) famous signature uppercut.
about 7 months ago
The two people on their front page aren’t even good enough, since you can see the obvious airbrushing!
about 7 months ago
Also, it is executed by inputting quarter circle forward+punch.
about 7 months ago
OH MY GOD, I was thinking of Hadouken, Shoryuken is forward, down, diagonal down-forward+punch. In SF4 you can shortcut with diagonal down-foward diagonal down-foward+punch.
about 7 months ago
I call it the blister move. It’s the one where if you haven’t played the game in a while you get a blister on that thumb trying to do that move.
about 7 months ago
That’s why I prefer arcade sticks.
about 7 months ago
Anyone else notice that the logo’s little “people” are quite “chubby” themselves?
about 6 months ago
Such people are ignorant, bloody bastards who are blind to the many faces that beauty can come in. They are still dwelling in the narrow-minded myth that looks and a slim physique are everything. If the people who are removed are considering about re-entering the site, they need a better life.
C’mon – why is this site even here in the first place? It’s an insult to society.