"Ugly" People Get Their Own Dating Site

It turns out that the range of dating sites out there has not yet been exhausted. From the UK comes The Ugly Bug Ball (TUBB for short), which says it’s for “ugly” people who would be shunned on other sites.

Howard James, the entrepreneur who started the site says, apparently with a straight face, “It’s a sad fact that up to half of the UK is made up of ugly people yet amazingly nobody has ever thought of providing a dating service for them.”

Ladies, those are some solid statistics.

No, seriously, there’s a pie chart.

According to The Sun, 1500 people had already signed up for the site from its launch on Monday through press time. Only 61,412,562 to go!

Conversations about fuckability are difficult to have — partly because these things aren’t static and are subjective, and partly because of the layers of hurt feelings involved. It’s easy enough to say that confidence is what matters and there’s someone out there for anyone; it’s harder to get over feelings of permanent rejection.

But James seems to have a rather particular view of what constitutes “ugly,” since he describes his site as enabling “people who aren’t attractive to engage in the dating game without fear of of ridicule for being ugly or excessively overweight.” It’s true that we’re told over and over again that being overweight is synonymous with being ugly, but not everyone’s actual preferences align with that.

Upon further consideration, if there are people signing up who feel shunned by the rest of the world, who elect to call themselves ugly and earnestly hope to find a partner, why not?

But the site itself doesn’t exactly encourage optimism.

# Ugly people are a better calibre of human – pretty people generally aren’t very nice and are often a bit shallow.

# Ugly people have had a tougher life and therefore tend to be more considerate and more loyal. A recent TUBB survey also proved that they try harder in bed.

# Once with an ugly partner it is unlikely that anyone will try and take them from you meaning you can let yourself go completely once you’re together.

# In these straightened times TUBB is cheaper as a) We don’t charge much as the pretty sites and b) Ugly people have lower expectations – for a first date a Family Bucket will usually do the trick.

They do pie charts and surveys.

Another bizarre aspect is found on the homepage: some of the featured profiles (which aren’t hyperlinked), appear to be handpicked to shock, with a few unflattering poses and one large woman showing a lot of skin, but if you click through actual profiles, the overwhelming impression is of people that are conventionally attractive. Maybe no one can really agree on what ugly means.

Ugly Daters Get Own Web Site [The Sun]

Earlier: Sex, Lies And Stereotypes: Can Women Really Get Laid Whenever They Want?