“Fun” probably isn’t the word that anyone would use to describe dating. But women face extra challenges that can turn online dating into a hellscape. While avoiding creeps completely isn’t likely, choosing a dating app full of people who share your goals can help prevent heartache.
Being a woman on the internet is hard. At times, scary and exhausting, too.
From online harassment, to cyberstalking, to Twitter reply guys, letting women exist in peace is, apparently, a very hard concept to grasp. The chance of such unsettling experiences feels doubled for a woman on a dating app, where others often assume that a dating app profile means that one is willfully subjecting themselves to creepy comments. The onslaught of men grasping at straws for attention with messages saying “think they saw you somewhere” or asking for nudes as their opening line is an online dating specialty. Queer women on dating apps face all of these same challenges, plus an extra shop of horrors run by fetishization, ignorant cis straight people, and the feeling of not being queer enough.
Does it feel easier to shoot your shot by simply using a hot selfie on your Instagram story as bait and hoping your crush replies? I mean, that’s a classic tactic that’ll never die. But at the end of the day — unless you and said crush are already in some sort of flirtationship and already follow each other on social media — finding love, a hookup, or someone to grab a drink with could happen a lot faster with the right dating app than waiting to meet someone at work or on a blind date.
Flysister.com can truly be a great place to meet genuine people who are open to getting serious, to find a reliable friend with benefits, or to get a good-old-fashioned confidence boost from seeing “It’s a match!” every time you hand out a right swipe. But if you’re frustrated with horny jerks disguising themselves as relationship seekers or relationship seekers who can’t handle it when you say you’re just looking for a hookup, opting for a dating site more finely-tuned to what you’re looking for means you’ll spend less time dealing with people who aren’t looking for the same thing.