So this is kind of gross: dating website OkCupid has partnered with Planned Parenthood to create a badge for people to display on their profiles indicating their support for the organization. OkCupid says that these new profile badges will enable users to help find similarly like-minded people.
We're partnering with @PPFA to enable daters to find folks who support #PlannedParenthood with #IStandWithPP profile badges pic.twitter.com/kTo6lEoaqP
— OkCupid (@okcupid) September 13, 2017
Cosmopolitan magazine framed the new badges as a way to tell in advance if your date was going to be "not totally terrible." Perhaps unsurprisingly, Planned Parenthood's president praised the article and the move.
Pink looks mighty good on you, @OKCupid. ??https://t.co/pTSIJJ5hIl
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) September 14, 2017
There's no way that young men will use this to find women who will likely sleep with them who will most likely not turn them into a father, right? Right?
OkCupid also used the new badges as a way to raise funds for Planned Parenthood.
This is an odd example of virtue signaling from a very unexpected place. Dating sites shouldn't be political--they're for people to find love/sex/friendship/whatever--there's no reason why politics should be folded into the whole equation. OkCupid already provides a host of questionnaires for prospective partners to browse, and people can reveal as much as they want about themselves to dates via the messaging feature. It doesn't really seem necessary to stamp a Planned Parenthood badge on your profile, plus I'm not entirely sure birth control/abortion/etc. are typical first date topics to broach. (At least, unless you don't want a second date, I guess.)
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