Huffington Magazine Issue 78 | Page 35

Voices In reality, Lulu is simply an unacceptable invasion of privacy, a place where women believe they are helping other women with a user-generated reference guide to dating, but in fact are just perpetuating pain for the very women they intend to protect. Here’s how Lulu works: Through Facebook, you can anonymously review any and all of your male friends in the following categories: appearance, humor, manners, sex, first kiss, ambition, and commitment. Women contribute valid observations — rendered, of course, in hashtags. Then Lulu churns out a rating. The site does not discriminate, which means that college-aged dating newbies making all the same mistakes we once did are branded with titles such as #F**kedMeChuckedMe. If this doesn’t seem bad enough, committed faithfuls can be assessed by the ghosts of girlfriends past with phrases like #ForgotMyBirthday and thrown into the same pool as bad boys, serial daters and dumpers, aka #TotalF*ckingDickhead #IncapableOfCommitment. This is... #WildlyOffensive. Let’s break it down, shall we? If you’re single, what is the first thing you do when you sign onto SAM RESSLER HUFFINGTON 12.08.13 Lulu? FIND YOUR EX, then FIND YOUR NEXT, correct? Step one: opening the ex-files. I start in chronological order (of course) because my Type A, obsessive personality shines through even while experimenting on the World Wide Web. Instinctively, I knew my first ex-boyfriends would hurt less than my last, so I started there. A form of calculated self-protection, if you will. Lulu is simply an unacceptable invasion of privacy, a place where women... are just perpetuating pain for the very women they intend to protect.” Reading about my high school and college boyfriends’ dalliances made me feel one poignant emotion: RE-MAD. Re-Mad (adj): The ungainly process of feeling or showing anger all over again. Now I’m reading about my exexes. I don’t giggle, smile or even wince that someone thought one #ShouldHaveComeWithAWarn-