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4B - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 10, 2005
INDEPENDENT WOMEN
MEMBERS OF THE "FAIRER SEX" REFUSE TO BE SECOND TO MEN
The Michigan Daily
iny words ja first-person account
WolverineSingles.com- the te,
By Shubra Ohri
For the Daily
"Is this chicken or is this fish? I know it's
tuna. But it says chicken." With this statement,
Jessica Simpson propelled herself into the
highest levels of celebrity through her ability
to display her lack of common sense. Women
all over the United States marvel at how a
woman so highly sexualized in our culture can
at times seem so unintelligent. Is intelligence
a detriment to being considered an attractive
woman? Is Jessica Simpson really what men
want?
The background
Recent studies seem to point in that direc-
tion. One study done at the University on
undergraduate students found that men are
more likely to choose partners with subor-
dinate careers for dating and long-term rela-
tionships.
The study also found that women showed
no significant preference for men based on
their relative career dominance for short or
long-term investments. The study cited the
evolutionary development of the male desire
for certainty about paternity as the reason
for choosing subordinate partners they could
more easily control.
In an even more eyebrow-raising study,
four British universities found that for every
16 point increase in IQ, the rate of marriage
went up 40 percent for men, while for women
the rate of marriage went down by 35 percent.
What exactly do these studies tell us about the
way society functions?
For most women, the results of these stud-
ies resound with familiarity. It simply con-
firms what many women have suspected for
quite a while. With over 57 percent of Bach-
elor of Arts degrees recipients being women,
"I pursue my career
because I have always
wanted to be great at
what I do. I don't think
that the goal if life is
to be simply happy, but
rather to be fulfilled."
- Catherine Yu
Alum
the ratio of success bound men and women is
changing.
Still, women shouldn't be so quick to adopt
the phrase "Oh my gawd" and put that high-
pitched giggle. Do all men really prefer a
woman inferior to them? There is no clear
answer to this question, because it obviously
differs for each person.
The survey shows that some men feel that
their masculinity is being threatened by a
strong woman. However, there are those who
might appreciate the company of a woman
who's equally, if not more, successful than
themselves.
Working women
Crystal Steffen, a physician at Resurrection
Hospital in Chicago, has had experience with
both types of men. "I was planning on mar-
rying somebody else before I met my current
husband, when I announced I was going to
med school, he was upset. We broke up soon
after," Steffen said.
Not too long after, she met her current
Most women try to pursue successful careers in various fields while still maintaining an
active social life.
husband who she says likes and appreciates
her success. "Pursuing medicine helped me
weed out the bad seeds." In correlation with
the University study, it does seem that women
with high goals become more picky on who
they date to avoid this very problem.
It should be noted that the survey, while
highly regarded, may not be divulging the
whole truth. A more successful woman might
find it beneficial to be brighter.
Still, some women have indeed found that
intelligence and confidence are beneficial.
Michigan alum Catherine Yu comments,
"When you are doing something you love and
are doing it well, you are confident about your
place in the world. Confidence is attractive in
any person." In other words, having a flour-
ishing career is not always a hindrance to a
woman's personal life.
Women are aware that they don't have to
pretend to be Jessica Simpson. Finding the
balance between a professional life and a per-
sonal life can be tricky, but it is apparent that
"I know that whatever
happens, my future
depends on my
abilities, aspirations
and decisions. That is
incredibly liberating'"
- Katherine Burson
Professor, Stephen M. Ross
School of Business
many women want to work at it.
Nobody wants to lose sight of their passion,
whatever it may be. Through her experience,
Yu has noted that "I pursue my career because
I have always wanted to be great at what I do. I
don't think that the goal of life is to be simply
happy, but rather to be fulfilled."
Additionally, Stephen M. Ross School of
Business Prof. Katherine Burson has real-
ized her success in the workplace has brought
her other sources of happiness. "I know that
whatever happens, my future depends on my
abilities, aspirations and decisions. That is
incredibly liberating," Burson said.
By Adam Rosen
Daily Arts Writer
Okay fine, I admit it - I don't have
a Valentine. And I won't soon forget
it, as I'm inundated daily with adver-
tisements hawking everything from
diamonds to KY-Jelly warming gel in
addition to being regularly asked which
overpriced restaurant I'm taking my
(non existent) date to. Nonetheless, in
the good spirit of romance, I've tried to
cast aside my sullenness and embark on
a mission to discover alternative places
for finding that special someone.
And so, per the suggestion of my
editors, I arrived at the website of Wol-
verineSingles.com - an online dat-
ing service that bills itself as a place
"where wolverines get together." If I
was going to explore the merits of an
online dating service, I was going to
do it properly, damn it, so in the fair
name of investigative journalism I cre-
ated two accounts, one as an ordinary
guy just looking for someone to talk to
and another as a journalist who needed
information from users on how the
service was working for them. I was
fiercely determined to discover all of
the, "ins and outs" of online dating.
According to Brad Armstrong, CEO
of White Buffalo Ventures, the Texas-
based company that owns Wolverine-
Singles.com, the site is just one of 130
other dating services, White Buffalo
Ventures also operates around 130
other dating services based on uni-
versity affiliations or affinities (Tat-
tooedSingles.com, CyclingSingles.
com and BornAgaindating.com are
just some of the matchmaking sites).
Launched ,in December 2003, Wol-
verineSingles.com, with 10,000 reg-
istered users, is one of White Buffalo
Ventures' most profitable websites,
Armstrong said.
For my investigation, I only wanted
to use this service for a few days, just
enough time to ascertain - through
my fellow WolverineSingles.comr
contacts-how romantically suc-
cessful a user could be. The problem
was, although you can make a profile
describing yourself and your ideal
soulmate down to the color of his or
her eyes for free, you cannot directly
contact anyone who strikes your fancy
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The Vietnam Protestors
Senator Dang Quang Minh, the
National Liberation Front's (Viet
Cong) ambassador to the Soviet
Union and a member of its Polit-
buro, once described his feelings
about his allies, the American
protestors: "When a person is
not good for his own country, he
is useless for the universe." Yung
Krall: A Thousand Tears Fallina.
Gary Lillie & Assoc., Realtors
www.garylillie.com
without paying a membership fee.
This leaves you with two options: You
can either wait for someone to be so
impressed by your sharp wit or good
looks that they pay the membership fee
just to get in touch with you (via secure
e-mail), or you can suck it up, pay the
fee and go on the offensive.
A one-month membership costs
$19.99, three months cost $44.95 and
six months are $69.95, but the real
Casanovas will have to shell out $99.95
to maintain an online romance for a full
year. As a total newbie to online dating,
I genuinely wanted to get the true feel
for it, so I coughed up the 20 bucks (in
my reporter persona, of course) hoping
to easily find a host of people looking
for men, women - or perhaps both
- to indulge me in their online dating
experiences. And so, in the course of
48 hours, I sent about 50 messages to
random people introducing myself and
politely requesting feedback on this
unfamiliar online dating service.
My responses? One. I don't know
how this occurred, especially if there
are 10,000 registered users. Maybe
girls and guys aren't as turned on as I
thought they would be by the username
I chose, "clubGuy05." I won't even try
to speculate. The only thing that I do
know is, every time I was logged into
the service I clicked on the "who's on"
button to let me know who else was
currently logged on and looking for
love. At its peak, the highest number
of people logged on aside from myself
was seven people. That's barely enough
for a good old-fashioned orgy.
Although I received only a single
response to my inquiries, it at least
appeared to be very illustrative of the
WolverineSingles.com user's experience.
One member, a university alum, felt
that this service, because of its affilia-
tion with the University, is able to effec-
tively counteract the most prevalent
taboo affecting online dating services
- the presence of those we'd all rather
not divulge personal information to.
"I guess it's different than the gener-
al sites - i.e. Match.com - since only
University students use it ... so that
automatically weeds out the less edu-
cated and older sketchy men, leaving
you with a group of pretty similar types
of young people," she said. In addition,
she added that she feels online dating
is becoming more mainstream, which
I
only benefits users on sites like Wol
verineSingles.com.
Through this service, she has bee
in contact with five guys, eventuall
meeting up with two. Although sh
didn't tell me what the end result of th
meetings were (though it's probabl
none of my business anyway), she di
mention that "they both seemed lik
nice, normal guys."
For those users blessed with mor
luck than me in finding a Valentin
and who plan to meet with a poter
tial online interest, both Armstron
and the WolverineSingles.com websit
urge for common sense to be exercised
I can only assume that a fair amour
DEAR VALEnTNE
WE CHOO -CHOO-
CHOOSE YOU!
WEEKEND MAGAZINEL
..... ...
64 , ..,t.C
Online dating services may not produce the expected results.
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SHUBRA OHRI/Daily
According to a University study, men are more likely to choose partners with subordinate
careers for relationships.
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