BEAUTY, BUMBLE & BEYOND

RECENTLY, MY FRIEND – who we’ll call Amy – went on a Bumble date. It went something like this: initial attraction, right swipe, some chat, a date, a kiss and then… nothing. Ghosted. She whatsapped her match – who we’ll call Sam – to see whether a second date was on the cards. She’s persistent, our Amy. “It’s just that you had the audacity to turn up without any makeup on. It’s like you couldn’t even be bothered to make an effort,” he replied. What the…? Needless to say, that was the end of Sam. And is it really, in the vein of a Jane Austen novel, that audacious to head out to attract a mate with your own unadorned face? The collective outrage this story has garnered from every angle (colleagues, friends, people on the bus) very much points to the obvious misogyny at play, yet it haunts me slightly as I contemplate my own curated Bumble