This week, HCX has been looking at alternative dating methods, so we thought it was fitting for us to inform you about the latest addition to the online dating world: checkhimout.com. The website which aims to “empower women”, displays men’s profiles for women to sort through, placing the stallion that takes their fancy, in an online shopping bag as they would a cute top on ASOS. Whilst every girl loves to shop, this new revolution in the dating world can be viewed as a contentious issue.
The website has been described as “a catalogue of potential suitors” for women to sift through until they find the ‘perfect’ man. The site claims itself to be empowering women by allowing them to pick and choose the man of their dreams as they would a designer hand-bag. Females are given complete control, with the men they invite to date competing against one another in order to secure a date. Furthermore, women can browse the website free of charge, whilst men have to pay a sign-up fee to be featured on the site. The owner Marie Aniort has also announced the launch of the website in the U.K will bring an accompanying shop in Central London, showing off the men available on the male-market. Aniort commenting on the shop has argued: “It will give the man-products the opportunity to interact with interested women face-to-face, so both parties can enjoy a new depth to the experience.” In this experience, women can definitely be said to be wearing the trousers in the relationship. However, can a site of this kind really be seen as empowering women? Dating is not meant to be a shopping experience in which someone owns another person. In reducing dating to a transaction, checkhimout.com creates relationships based on factors aside from love or attraction. HCX would argue that far from being a revolutionary concept, checkhimout.com in fact presents a step-back in society– returning to times in which relationships were based purely on commercial value.
If the roles were reversed and it was women placed on display, it can be questioned whether the site would be such a success? If women were displayed, there would more than certainly be outpour about the objectification of women and how they have been taken advantage of. The media constantly critique men for objectifying women, but what about women objectifying men- checkmeout.co does exactly this. The creator of the site describes the men as “products” highlighting how far they have been reduced from people to commodity on the website. Empowering women is clearly a very important issue, but if women empowerment occurs through methods of these kinds; through reducing men to property- surely us women are no different to men. Furthermore, a site of this kind, encourages women to focus solely on physical attributes reinforcing the culture that outer appearance reflects inner virtue.
In thought, checkhimout.com can be seen as a fantastic idea. It is a fun approach to online dating that incorporate two of many women’s best friends: shopping and boys. However, the combination of these two qualities doesn’t make for the best mix. The site implies that women can only be empowered through asserting their power over men, undermining any power they may achieve.
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