Technological Aspects of Online Dating Actively Shake Up Gender Roles
Some people believe that online dating has actively helped facilitate the breakdown of traditional dating rituals through its unique technological aspects. People with this opinion explain that the "ease and relative anonymity of online dating sites" are two of the main reasons why online dating diminishes traditional gender roles. Users are more likely to take a greater risk and reach out to someone they would not approach in person. Specifically, online dating allows some women to "overcome traditional gender norms that cast them in a passive role of waiting to be approached." Instead of a woman waiting for a man to approach her, she can send him a message herself, an action "just as acceptable online" as it is for a man to message a woman. Because the technology of online messaging and email is so recent, it is not mired in the traditional patriarchal patterns of the past. This is not a case in which the boys always ask the girls to a dance unless it is a Sadie Hawkins dance.
Another way in which the world of online dating undermines stereotypical roles for genders is how dating rejections are handled. Jill Filipovic, author of the article "Online dating levels the romantic playing field for women", points out that women are empowered to make the rejections themselves, immediately, and no longer have to be concerned about physical confrontations. Since women are expected to be nice and accommodating, they sometimes accept invitations to dates that they were not interested in going on. In the online context though, women would be less likely to accept invitations to dates they were not interested in. Online dating thus allows women to avoid enduring unpleasant experiences for the sake of being nice, as traditional stereotypes expect them to be.
Dan Slater, author of the book Love in the Time of Algorithms, says that online dating has definite benefits for women. Besides how easy it is for women to proactively approach men online, which he says breaks down much of the "cultural or social script," he also praises the feature of online dating which allows users to specify the criteria they feel that they want or need in a date. He argues that this feature allows a female user to look for men she's actually interested in, instead of waiting for them to contact her.
Dan Slater, author of the book Love in the Time of Algorithms, says that online dating has definite benefits for women. Besides how easy it is for women to proactively approach men online, which he says breaks down much of the "cultural or social script," he also praises the feature of online dating which allows users to specify the criteria they feel that they want or need in a date. He argues that this feature allows a female user to look for men she's actually interested in, instead of waiting for them to contact her.
In order to put the power of selection directly in the hands of women, an online dating service called CheckHimOut has been launched. CheckHimOut is designed as an online marketplace where men are the products and women are the shoppers. The site's founder, Teddy Truchot, proclaims that the site will allow women "to choose, objectify and use men however they see fit." The ironic aspect of this service's claim to "[eradicate] gender stereotypes in romantic relationships" is that it seems to encourage new stereotypes by treating men as objects.