Stacey Ritzen
In yet another tedious example of the pitfalls of modern dating, a London-based publishing assistant recently shared an absolutely appalling exchange she had with a potential date she met on Hinge.
Katie Coe, who works for DIY Magazine, an independent music publication, had matched with a man named Freddie on the Hinge app. According to screenshots of the text exchange she tweeted, things seemed to be heading towards a date before her would-be beau made a startling admission.
“Not gonna lie, I put a couple of your selfies through that Prettyscale website to check if you are actually attractive,” Freddie revealed. “Your score was decent (but your forehead is too big apparently LOL!) So do you wanna go out next week?”
Prettyscale, for the uninitiated, is a “face beauty analysis test” website that rates user-submitted photos or selfies from 1 to 100 to determine if you’re “ugly” or “pretty.” The whole concept is pretty gross—but is also generally a novelty website that is not to be taken seriously.
“Wtf why did you do that? And then tell me about it?” Coe responded, incredulously. “Weird,” she added.
“I do it for all people I consider dating, just to check if they’re scientifically good-looking and I’m not just confused,” offered Freddie. “Like I said, you seem alright so next week?”
Suffice to say, Coe quickly made it clear that the date was off, but Freddie was undeterred. “Sorry I didn’t mean to offend!” he responded. “I think you’re cute but I just like to be sure!”
At that point, Coe decided to give Freddie a taste of his own medicine by running one of his own photos through the website, which resulted in a 0% score and “poop emoji,” to add insult to injury.
“I’ve just run a photo of you through that website and I’m afraid it’s gonna have to be a firm no, bye,” Coe quipped, to which Freddie shot back, “Fuck you. I’m not ugly. You’re [sic] loss!”
“I obviously unmatched him and deleted his number but my god I hope he sees this lol,” Coe added in a follow-up tweet.
Given how quickly her tweets went viral, it seems very likely that Freddie will indeed see his callous remarks broadcast on the internet. Many women jumped into the fray to call Freddie out for such a fragrant display of toxic masculinity.
Others accused him of “negging,” which is described as an “act of emotional manipulation whereby a person makes a deliberate backhanded compliment to undermine confidence and increase their need of the manipulator’s approval.”
Good luck in your future dating endeavors, Freddie. He’s just damn lucky his photo didn’t end up on the internet for millions to judge!