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Gay vs. Straight

Jill

Anti-gay protest

OK Cupid posts its latest dating/sex trends, this time dissecting profiles based on sexual orientation. The result? We’re all about equally slutty, women are bad at astronomy and I have a lot more in common with lesbians than anyone else. It is kind of hilarious, though, to click through the breakdowns of what gay men vs. straight men vs. gay women vs. straight women list in their profiles — especially when you click on gay women and “THE L WORD” comes up in enormous letters, followed closely by “Tegan and Sara.” Nicely done, ladies. Hetero women, on the other hand, seem to prefer “my girlfriends,” Nicholas Sparks and “lipgloss.” Straight dudes predictably like poker, cars and their boats, while gay men prefer “The Devil Wears Prada,” Britney, and “Mean Girls.”

Conclusion: Straight people should no longer be allowed to get married, because they are terrible.

25 thoughts on Gay vs. Straight

  5. Oh and if they really think gay people are not into straight people they should meet one of my ex-girlfriends lol. Ever heard of the toaster thing? Yeah it’s a joke, but still.

  6. And without getting into specifics, was anyone else stunned at how low self-reported number of partners was? Six? Really? For people in their teens, I get it, but for people in their twenties and thirties and forties, that average seems very low, regardless of sexual orientation. And lower than some of the stats I’ve seen from the Kinsey folks, etc.

  7. OH, geez. That earth versus sun thing is embarrassing. (On the bright side, maybe I can get outreach money from NASA for educating women I meet on dating sites about our place in the universe.)

  8. Okay, I have to admit, I’ve been active on OkCupid in the past, and the “Straight women adore lip gloss” thing had me baffled (it’s really obvious if you read more than a dozen straight women’s profiles). But gay women don’t? Even more baffled.

  9. I’d go for a marathon with the average straight dudes who like the Coen brothers, except I fear they’re not getting how parodic the Coen brothers are of American conventions? So I’ll just settle, happily, for a Nina Simone listening party at your average gay dude’s. Other than that, though, I’m not sure how cool I am with average people? Seriously, there’s some major ick to be had there all around.

  10. The author even said he had to shrink down “The L Word” to fit it in the box. According to the post, I’m apparently not the greatest lesbian.

    I love the OKTrends blog so much. It’s fascinating to me the kind of data they pull out of the site. The post “The Case for an Older Woman” was pretty interesting to me, and pulled a lot of interesting data about how gender and age relate in the dating world.

  11. Hugo – it’s a median, not an average. And it’s probably hitting only PIV; In that context, it seems pretty believable to me. It’s also a self-selected sample of people who’re disproportionately young and single, and probably on the aggregate below average at dating et al., since they’re motivated enough to actively seek dates via internets.

  13. The “my boat” thing cracked me up. I’ve heard several guys try to casually mention owning a boat in conversation with a woman they’re hitting on (sometimes I’ve been that woman). It’s so cheesy. I mean, I’m sure owning a boat is fun and all, but it’s obviously code for “I have money.”

  16. I’m a mostly straight woman, but I’m not sure what lipgloss is, exactly. Apparently I missed some memo.

  17. See, and the thing I always liked about OK Cupid is that it lets you identify as bisexual, and not have to be on one side of a “straight vs gay” dichotomy.* But I guess on their reports that kind of thing is clearly less important than making their people into a demographic compare/contrast.

    *I know that bisexual, the term they use, implies that there are only two genders. But most dating sites only allow you to be listed as interested in men or women, not both.

  18. nobody, I’m a moslty straight woman too and while I do in fact own and use some lipgloss… I don’t really feel the need to tell other people about it? My use of lipgloss isn’t that pertinant to getting to know me ya know. So yeah, I missed that memo too!

  19. Brian: Hugo – it’s a median, not an average.Andit’s probably hitting only PIV;In that context, it seems pretty believable to me.It’s also a self-selected sample of people who’re disproportionately young and single, and probably on the aggregate below average at dating et al., since they’re motivated enough to actively seek dates via internets.  

    Umm I don’t think people who seek dates on the internet can be considered “below average at dating.” It’s a pretty common practice now.

  21. nobody: I’m a mostly straight woman, but I’m not sure what lipgloss is, exactly. Apparently I missed some memo. 

    Less moisturizing but shinier chapstick, as far as I can tell. I use chapstick myself, but don’t tell the world about it when trying to get laid… possibly because there’s nothing terribly sexy about chapstick.

  23. Lip gloss effectively makes your lips look shiny and wet. You put it on over lipstick, or on your bare lips, depending on how made up you want to look. It comes with scents and flavors. Sometimes it’s colored, and sometimes it’s just a clear shiny stuff. It feels slick and oily when you put it on, which I always liked.

    I don’t mind lip gloss, but it wouldn’t occur to me to put it on a list of my interests. I’m also not straight, though.

  24. I wish they’d do real research with the data they have, but it would be inimical to their marketing to suggest that what people fill out about dating profiles suggests the view of themselves that they want to be seen, rather than their deep, innermost thoughts.

    I’m not saying “people on dating sites lie,” which is something I hear a lot, but rather their self-reported interests probably relate more to what they think of as recognizable patterns of consumption than anything else. I could include in my likes that I really like fidgeting with the little plastic things at the end of the drawstring on my hoodie, but I won’t. Instead I’ll say I like Of Montreal and vegan cookies (I really do, but at the moment I appear to be preoccupied with fidgeting).

    Unfortunately, it’s in the best interest of sites like OKCupid to pretend that their data mining represents people’s actual behavior and preferences, like with their infamous “racial stereotypes are all true” article.

    That, coupled with the rather counterintuitive inferential concept that if you take a set of data collected from completely average people, it will still show something, gives me pause on any of their posts. You’re supposed to set the goal posts of what you’re looking for before you collect the data so you don’t perform what is the statistical equivalent of finding shapes in the clouds.

  25. The subtext to a lot of homophobic thinking is the idea that gays will try to get straight people into bed at the first opportunity, or that gays are looking to “convert” straights.

    I hate lesbians because they don’t find me attractive. WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?!

    Seriously though, for people who really do, I’ll bet that’s an actual reason they won’t admit…

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