This new app lets women review the men they date—and makes everyone really, really mad
The new smartphone app Lulu is sort of like Yelp, except instead of taco joints, it lets users review actual human beings. Male human beings, to be precise. The concept may sound silly, but the stats are eye-catching: just six months after launch, up to a quarter of all female college students in the U.S. are logged on to Lulu, according to founder Alexandra Chong. A search for Toronto-based reviews pulls up hundreds of profiles, most of them guys from U of T and Western. Women use the app by answering multiple-choice questions about their male friends (as in capital-F Facebook Friends) in a bunch of different categories, including appearance, sense of humour and sexual prowess. They can also add hashtags to the review, some of them positive (e.g. #SmellsAmazeballs, #SexualPanther) and others not so positive (e.g. #TotalF**kingDickhead, #PornEducated, #CheaperThanABigMac). A mysterious algorithm is then used to award the guy a score out of ten.
The app’s notoriety took a giant leap last week when it got profiled in the New York Times. Since then, the blogosphere has been ablaze with discussion, with some applauding the app as a useful tool (potentially for both sexes) and others condemning it as a “virtual burn book.” Unsurprisingly, more than a few guys are complaining about their lower-than-expected scores. One Brazilian dude is even suing the company over some less-than-complimentary hashtags on his profile—including one potentially comparing his genitals to a cheese puff.
