06-02-2005, 06:38 PM
TOO SEXY FOR THE MASSES
By MAUREEN CALLAHAN
June 2, 2005 -- GET ready for the most exclusive dating Web site yet. Set to launch in the United States this summer, beautifulpeople.net will cater to what its founders call an underserved, misunderstood group: the exceptionally good-looking.
"People say it's elitist - of course it is!" says site co-founder Greg Hodge, 30.
"It's not p.c., but let's face it: Beautiful people want to be with beautiful people. Hell, ugly people want to be with beautiful people. We didn't create the demand. We just cater to it."
First launched 21/2 years ago in Denmark and now a month old in the United Kingdom, beautifulpeople.net has proved wildly successful - with even the unsightly masses continually reapplying in the hopes of gaining entry to the world's prettiest virtual clique.
"We have people in Denmark who have been reapplying for two years now," says Hodge, who adds that the Danish site has spawned seven marriages.
The U.K. site currently lists more than 3,000 members. Hodge says he receives more than 500 applications a day; only one out of 15 is accepted. (Applicants upload a picture and profile and existing members vote them in or out over a 72-hour period.)
Though Hodge is still trying to figure out just how to market the site to New Yorkers, he is confident that it will be as successful here as it has been in Europe.
Click Here!
"The U.S. is known to be a very look-ist society," says member Jason Gale, 30, who used to run a members-only club in the West End popular with Madonna and Jennifer Lopez. "It should go down well."
Beautifulpeople.net is the first site of its kind; other dating sites, like Match.com and Nerve, do not discriminate based on looks, and place equal importance on personality, professions, and hobbies.
In the U.K., reaction has ranged from utter fascination to gleeful mocking, and Hodge (who says he doesn't know if he's beautiful, "but my mother would say I am") has received at least one death threat and angry mail from 14-year-old-schoolgirls. "These girls are a little to young to be on the site," he says dismissively.
New York City matchmaker Janis Spindel thinks that beautifulpeople.net will be hugely popular in New York - in fact, she's working on a similar site for the city's "pretty people" and will be a ruthless judge of applicants.
"If you don't qualify, you don't qualify!" she yells. "Women have to be attractive, well-groomed, well-educated and thin - oh, please, it's important! Men almost have an allergy to fat." As it is, Spindel says she expends way too much energy bullying her New York clientele into paying more attention to their appearance.
"Just yesterday, I spent 45 minutes yelling at this woman who said to me, 'You knew the minute you met me you weren't going to be able to match me with anyone!' I said, 'You are a mess! You don't do anything with yourself!' She is unattractive and much too much overweight. You have to be realistic about what you look like."
As harsh as it sounds, anthropologist and "Why We Love" author Dr. Helen Fisher says that Spindel and Hodge are absolutely right.
"Attractiveness is very, very important," says Fisher, who adds that in the initial meeting between two people, looks are a non-negotiable.
"They've found this with other Internet dating sites - where people are e-mailing each other and building up a bond, and then they exchange pictures and the looks are the deal-breaker," she says. "They do call it love at first sight."
Gale, a former model, admits that even he found the beautifulpeople.net application process nerve-racking.
After uploading his picture and profile to the site - "I was massively self-conscious," he says - he waited to see which of four categories members checked off: a) Yes, certainly!; b) Hmmm. Yes, OK; c) Hmmm. Not really; d) No! Not at all!
"I checked my rating 10 times over the course of one weekend," he says. "I just thought, this is more important to me than it should be."
Gale was accepted - but a friend of his wasn't so fortunate. After her first rejection, she hired a professional to take new photos - but was declined admittance again.
"Oh, she's gutted! She's really upset!" says Gale, who thinks she has only herself to blame. "She's a lovely girl, but she thinks she's really beautiful. So it was a shock to the system."
He's since played down his membership to others. "You don't want to set your friends up for a fall, do you? I tell them I'm doing it purely for business."
In fact, Gale has been on only one date with a woman he met through the site.
"She was very beautiful," he says. "But I think she was very interested in money."
The one thing that all involved with beautifulpeople.net agree upon is that men judge women solely on their appearance, whereas women will grade well-to-do men on a sliding scale. (Applicants can disclose how much money they make, if they want to.)
"I think my income may have had something to do with my vote," says Robert Bryan, a 50-year-old American who claims to work in mergers and acquisitions and posted his income at $500,000. "Perhaps there is something to that."
Bryan, who got in with 60 percent of the vote (anyone who gets 50 percent or under is rejected) admits that while he's not a "GQ kind of guy," he is only interested in Vogue-caliber women.
"I am an artist," he says. "I have a very high aesthetic sense. I want my mate to be very attractive. Call me shallow. I am what I am."
Like Gale, he has been on only one date with a woman he met through beautifulpeople.net, and while he says it went well, he admits that dating in the real world is much more difficult for him.
"This is where it bugs the hell out of me - women do not have an animal attraction to me," Bryan grouses. "The women who like me tend to be a little older and overweight. It drives me nuts! It's not my type!"
He says that his own torment has led him to be a gentle voter to aspiring beautifulpeople.net members.
"I do think about this when I vote on people," Bryan says. He allows entr‚e to most hopefuls - "unless they're pigs," he says in all seriousness. "Unless they're god-awful. Unless they're exceptionally ugly, I wouldn't say no. Do I show mercy? Yes. But they don't know that."
As for how New Yorkers will tend to rate each other, Hodge says that he believes the site's appeal transcends geography and cultures. "It doesn't matter where you go," he says. "Society places importance on what's beautiful and what's not."
And, he points out, it has become a useful networking and marketing tool. In England, producers for reality shows like "Big Brother" and "Temptation Island" troll the site for potential cast members.
"I've gotten some great work off it," says model Jade Ball, whose boyfriend also belongs to beautifulpeople.net - solely, she says, for business purposes. (He promotes his nightclub on the site.)
Though Ball told The Post the site is "quite good fun," she admits she's threatened by the other women communicating with her boyfriend. "He doesn't know this, but I have his password," she says. "There's a huge party for all the members next week - I'm going to kick some serious ass!"
Ball may not have much to worry about. Dr. Fisher says that, ultimately, looks only count in the very beginning. After a very short time, things like commonality of backgrounds, interests, values - even a shared sense of humor - assume equal, if not more, importance.
"Initially, beauty is the most important thing," agrees member Gale. "But 15 minutes later, after talking to somebody, you can equally think, 'You're not very pretty, are you?'"
By MAUREEN CALLAHAN
June 2, 2005 -- GET ready for the most exclusive dating Web site yet. Set to launch in the United States this summer, beautifulpeople.net will cater to what its founders call an underserved, misunderstood group: the exceptionally good-looking.
"People say it's elitist - of course it is!" says site co-founder Greg Hodge, 30.
"It's not p.c., but let's face it: Beautiful people want to be with beautiful people. Hell, ugly people want to be with beautiful people. We didn't create the demand. We just cater to it."
First launched 21/2 years ago in Denmark and now a month old in the United Kingdom, beautifulpeople.net has proved wildly successful - with even the unsightly masses continually reapplying in the hopes of gaining entry to the world's prettiest virtual clique.
"We have people in Denmark who have been reapplying for two years now," says Hodge, who adds that the Danish site has spawned seven marriages.
The U.K. site currently lists more than 3,000 members. Hodge says he receives more than 500 applications a day; only one out of 15 is accepted. (Applicants upload a picture and profile and existing members vote them in or out over a 72-hour period.)
Though Hodge is still trying to figure out just how to market the site to New Yorkers, he is confident that it will be as successful here as it has been in Europe.
Click Here!
"The U.S. is known to be a very look-ist society," says member Jason Gale, 30, who used to run a members-only club in the West End popular with Madonna and Jennifer Lopez. "It should go down well."
Beautifulpeople.net is the first site of its kind; other dating sites, like Match.com and Nerve, do not discriminate based on looks, and place equal importance on personality, professions, and hobbies.
In the U.K., reaction has ranged from utter fascination to gleeful mocking, and Hodge (who says he doesn't know if he's beautiful, "but my mother would say I am") has received at least one death threat and angry mail from 14-year-old-schoolgirls. "These girls are a little to young to be on the site," he says dismissively.
New York City matchmaker Janis Spindel thinks that beautifulpeople.net will be hugely popular in New York - in fact, she's working on a similar site for the city's "pretty people" and will be a ruthless judge of applicants.
"If you don't qualify, you don't qualify!" she yells. "Women have to be attractive, well-groomed, well-educated and thin - oh, please, it's important! Men almost have an allergy to fat." As it is, Spindel says she expends way too much energy bullying her New York clientele into paying more attention to their appearance.
"Just yesterday, I spent 45 minutes yelling at this woman who said to me, 'You knew the minute you met me you weren't going to be able to match me with anyone!' I said, 'You are a mess! You don't do anything with yourself!' She is unattractive and much too much overweight. You have to be realistic about what you look like."
As harsh as it sounds, anthropologist and "Why We Love" author Dr. Helen Fisher says that Spindel and Hodge are absolutely right.
"Attractiveness is very, very important," says Fisher, who adds that in the initial meeting between two people, looks are a non-negotiable.
"They've found this with other Internet dating sites - where people are e-mailing each other and building up a bond, and then they exchange pictures and the looks are the deal-breaker," she says. "They do call it love at first sight."
Gale, a former model, admits that even he found the beautifulpeople.net application process nerve-racking.
After uploading his picture and profile to the site - "I was massively self-conscious," he says - he waited to see which of four categories members checked off: a) Yes, certainly!; b) Hmmm. Yes, OK; c) Hmmm. Not really; d) No! Not at all!
"I checked my rating 10 times over the course of one weekend," he says. "I just thought, this is more important to me than it should be."
Gale was accepted - but a friend of his wasn't so fortunate. After her first rejection, she hired a professional to take new photos - but was declined admittance again.
"Oh, she's gutted! She's really upset!" says Gale, who thinks she has only herself to blame. "She's a lovely girl, but she thinks she's really beautiful. So it was a shock to the system."
He's since played down his membership to others. "You don't want to set your friends up for a fall, do you? I tell them I'm doing it purely for business."
In fact, Gale has been on only one date with a woman he met through the site.
"She was very beautiful," he says. "But I think she was very interested in money."
The one thing that all involved with beautifulpeople.net agree upon is that men judge women solely on their appearance, whereas women will grade well-to-do men on a sliding scale. (Applicants can disclose how much money they make, if they want to.)
"I think my income may have had something to do with my vote," says Robert Bryan, a 50-year-old American who claims to work in mergers and acquisitions and posted his income at $500,000. "Perhaps there is something to that."
Bryan, who got in with 60 percent of the vote (anyone who gets 50 percent or under is rejected) admits that while he's not a "GQ kind of guy," he is only interested in Vogue-caliber women.
"I am an artist," he says. "I have a very high aesthetic sense. I want my mate to be very attractive. Call me shallow. I am what I am."
Like Gale, he has been on only one date with a woman he met through beautifulpeople.net, and while he says it went well, he admits that dating in the real world is much more difficult for him.
"This is where it bugs the hell out of me - women do not have an animal attraction to me," Bryan grouses. "The women who like me tend to be a little older and overweight. It drives me nuts! It's not my type!"
He says that his own torment has led him to be a gentle voter to aspiring beautifulpeople.net members.
"I do think about this when I vote on people," Bryan says. He allows entr‚e to most hopefuls - "unless they're pigs," he says in all seriousness. "Unless they're god-awful. Unless they're exceptionally ugly, I wouldn't say no. Do I show mercy? Yes. But they don't know that."
As for how New Yorkers will tend to rate each other, Hodge says that he believes the site's appeal transcends geography and cultures. "It doesn't matter where you go," he says. "Society places importance on what's beautiful and what's not."
And, he points out, it has become a useful networking and marketing tool. In England, producers for reality shows like "Big Brother" and "Temptation Island" troll the site for potential cast members.
"I've gotten some great work off it," says model Jade Ball, whose boyfriend also belongs to beautifulpeople.net - solely, she says, for business purposes. (He promotes his nightclub on the site.)
Though Ball told The Post the site is "quite good fun," she admits she's threatened by the other women communicating with her boyfriend. "He doesn't know this, but I have his password," she says. "There's a huge party for all the members next week - I'm going to kick some serious ass!"
Ball may not have much to worry about. Dr. Fisher says that, ultimately, looks only count in the very beginning. After a very short time, things like commonality of backgrounds, interests, values - even a shared sense of humor - assume equal, if not more, importance.
"Initially, beauty is the most important thing," agrees member Gale. "But 15 minutes later, after talking to somebody, you can equally think, 'You're not very pretty, are you?'"
![[Image: sad2.gif]](http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/contrib/edoom/sad2.gif)