Yep, I need to hop a plane because shopping in Paris just got even better.
The French dating website AdopteUnMec.com (Adopt a Guy) is doing a promotion scheme in which they have set up boutique in Paris where women can shop for their perfect man. The merchandise is displayed in glass containers that resemble boxes of a Ken doll and the boy toys inside have names like "Mr. Muscle" and "The Rocker" and come complete with accessories to make play more exciting like guitars and surf boards. And as you can imagine the crowd around this boutique to adopt one of these dolls is a big as the ones to adopt a Cabbage Patch doll back in 1985.
Now of course, many are arguing that this set up is not tres chic but rather quite gauche as it is incredibly objectifying to men. Fair enough. Just think of the reactions if a dating website set up a boutique shop with women posed for the picking in boxes like Barbies. And some critics are even comparing this boutique to Amsterdam's red light district where the female prostitutes advertise themselves in luridly illuminated windows. But the dating website says that objectifying men or equating them to prostitutes is not their aim, but they do look to empower women and make them feel less threatened and more in control with the dating process. And they feel this temporary shop is just a fun and playful "market of love." After all, Paris is the city of love.
I think this flirty, French boutique is great marketing. I still don't like the idea of online dating and, in fact, think it's ridiculous. Human kind has somehow successfully been mating for centuries prior to the likes of Match.com and FarmersOnly.com and of course IDreamofU.com (which led me to consider therapy after designing a dream man who looked just like my gay roommate) and all the others helping us along, so I'm sure we'd be just fine without them. But these dating sights are working hard to win us all over to suck on their sugar coated schtick that true love at first sight is one click away.
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