A picture is worth a thousand words

After my date with the lawyer I received a text from one of the men I had been chatting to online, asking me if I would like to meet up.

I was very pleased that, despite having put him off a couple of times because I was busy, he was still interested in going out.

The texts got as far as settling on a venue and time when Craig, for twas his name, sent a text which blew the date out of the water.

Me: Camden at 1pm on Saturday sounds great, looking forward to it.

Craig: Yea me too, have you got any other pictures ;-)

Now this sounds harmless but to explain, on my profile I already have around 8 photographs and none of them are the long distance type shots many people use, they are clear, honest and up-close photos.

Upon relaying this conversation to mummy-single it became apparent there is a generational gap in how this message would be received. Had mummy-single received this message she would have sent him a holiday snap. (Bless mummy-singles naive heart!)  

However most twentysomethings would interpret this message very differently and I took this as a request for something distinctly more intimate.

So I pressed Craig a little more, asking him what he meant, the answer came back “whatever you want to send me baby” (Baby? When did I become baby?)

Altogether now….smooooooooooth

You see we live in the technological age where sexting and online sexual relationships grace the headlines almost daily and these kinds of pictures being exchanged before pleasantries is fairly common practice.

You only have to look at the popularity of app’s such as Grinder or Blendr to know that an increasing number of single (or married) people are getting their rocks off over the photographs of strangers.

Now, if you’re single, this is all good clean adult fun as far as I can see, provided no one you’re communicating with is below the age of consent. These apps offer an environment in which everyone is there for the same purpose.

(An app is a thing you get on an IPhone mummy-single, no you can’t have apps, you have a Nokia circa 1992)

However a dating site is not, as far as I was concerned, a hook up site. Some dating sites offer you the opportunity to label yourself according to what you are looking for, casual sex and hook up’s being an option, however this is the reason I chose my site carefully and this particular site requires a subscription and does not offer the casual sex label.

They have a far better reputation for not attracting the sort of men who are looking for soft armature porn pictures (have they never heard of red tube?) but clearly is doesn’t deter them all. I am only interested in people who would like to date in a more traditional sense.  

In any event if I were that way inclined and had any sense I would be working on a “find girls in your area” website and earning some money from it, mama didn’t raise no fool.  

I ignored the request and the next day Craig sent me a charming “Are we meeting up or what?” text which I just said no thanks and I haven’t heard from him since. I view this as a lucky escape!

So does the fact that a woman is using a dating site mean that she is easy prey to the men making such requests because she is seemingly “desperate” and therefore will be so flattered by the male’s advances she will immediately drop her knickers and furiously take photos of her jizz receptacle?

Of course not, most women will ignore this request and be grateful that they didn’t waste their time on a date with a guy who would almost certainly be trying to achieve a one night stand. It begs the question, why are these men subscribing to the dating sites when they could just go to a hook up site and get all the pussy pictures they want. Meow.

I personally think the reason lays in attainability. The women who frequent a site for exchanging pictures will rarely meet the men they communicate with, women on dating sites are looking to meet men, to actually go out and have a drink with them.

These pictures exchanged online for a quick thrill are not the same as actually having sexual contact with someone. When you go out on a Saturday night you don’t get tanked up, go home and Google image doner kebabs do you? No, you bloody well eat one.

So these men who are trying to blend the two worlds of online dating and online sex are trying to have both needs met but, in doing so, are doing themselves a disservice.   

So Craig, you were barking up the wrong tree in the wrong wood unfortunately, Baby.