Every b*tch loves some girl-talk right? The all new girls-only Facebook app—Lulu—is betting on a big 'ol yes from the vagina-toting community. Lulu is a social networking "rating" app where women can dish on men they're "friends" with;on Facebook through—you guessed it—hashtags. #bigfeet.;#neversleepsover.;#runsthistown. #pennypincher. #kinkyinalltherightways. Etc. etc. etc.
I mean holy sh*t. While my dark side thinks this is a wonderland of frothy fun—who wouldn't love to publicly humiliate some cocky bastard who broke your heart—it also got me thinking about what a sexist, stereotype-solidifying nightmare this Lulu thing actually is.
Not only can you only choose hashtags to summarize the men who you've dated, are pals with, etc.—which seems like a dangerous over-simplification—only the creators of Lulu create the hashtags . . . so it's more-than-possible you can't even say what you'd like to say. (Which implies to me that they're trying to save a bevy of love-scorned women from humiliating some poor chap who just wasn't that into her.) Or whathaveyou.
While founder Alexandra Chong says she created Lulu to "unleash the value of girl and empower girls to make smarter decisions on topics ranging from relationships to beauty and health," I just don't know how educated you're going to be using um, hashtags, as your guiding posts to a human being. Not only is everyone wonderfully different and is attracted to different people (thank GOD, otherwise we'd all be brawling over some beefcake in the streets) but it encourages the concept that people can actually be summarized in someone else's overly pithy words, which is troubling to say the least.
The good news however is that any man who doesn't want to be hashtagged (reviewed) on Lulu can have their profile taken down immediately. In fact, Lulu encourages men to ask their "lab partner," "mom" or "ex girlfriend" to say nice things about them. So in the end it feels like some vetting process for a dating site, not a place for women to share secrets or insights. Plus, I don't really want to see some laundry list of women singing my future boyfriend's praises or flaws ...it's yucky.
But perhaps yuckiest of all is the inherent hypocrisy of the whole damn thing. Can you imagine if some hot young man thang launched a site where men could publicly hashtag women?! We'd be burnin' bras and bitchin' the house down. I do think the blog has some classic, sassy, insightful honest-to-goodness relationship advice that is somewhere between Jezebel and Cosmo . . . but overall Lulu leaves a worse taste in my mouth than a gin-induced hangover.
Image: Nothing says, "I'm a self-confident, free-thinking women more than shit-talking an ex on an iPhone app."
