Only Attractive Need Apply

[shaking my head and wanting to ring the neck of the man pictured in the article]

This one takes the cake. Maybe I would think differently if I were a hot movie star... geez I hope not.

Yes, we're human. Naturally, people want someone they think is nice to look at. However, I worry that one of the reasons people fail to find a partner in life is because they have unrealistic expectations about superficial qualities. Things like this website make people think it's okay to judge people on looks.

We criticize celebrities somewhat for getting plastic surgery, yet we reward them the better they look. Where's the incentive to be natural and take care of your body?

To each their own. It was bound to happen. What happens when they see each other the next morning with crusty mascara, unshaven faces, and spray tans fading? Oh, excuse me, they probably don't stay around long enough to see that. (Cranky, aren't I? ;))

It seems I'm in the minority these days. Many of my girlfriends are are starting to say they'd consider Botox or will go under the knife when things start sagging. Maybe some of them already have but are keeping it secret.

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Dating site asks 'are you hot enough?'

Story Highlights
• Users vote on whether people are hot enough to join
• Almost 1,000 people have joined
• About 25 percent of applicants expected


TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- Jason Pellegrino (an 8.2 on the attractiveness scale) says the problem with Internet dating services is not enough really hot-looking people.

So he and a business partner have created HotEnough.org, a sort of online version of Studio 54, the exclusive '70s disco where gaining admission was a pitiless Darwinian exercise. HotEnough.org is for "fit, good-looking" people.

Prospective members must submit pictures and must be rated an 8 or higher by people already in the club. Once they are in, they are permitted to e-mail other "hotties" for $9.95 a month.

"It's definitely hard to get through that rope, but once you're in, you're in and you're part of the party," Pellegrino said. "But you know there's going to be a lot of people outside waiting."

The 33-year-old said he and his partner, Sean Cohen, created the site after concluding that Internet dating sites attract a lot of brave and desperate people but not particularly attractive ones.

A few months after its launch, membership is just under 1,000, Pellegrino said. In the beginning, only 8 percent of those who applied made the grade, but now about 25 percent of applicants do, he said.

Candidates must send in three pictures, including one full-body shot. Active members rate the pictures online without knowing anything else about the people in them.

"People can say that the site is shallow, they can say it's superficial, but I think we're all a bit superficial when it comes to dating," Pellegrino said.

One of the "hotties" accepted into the club is Jimmy Ziomek, a 29-year-old from New York City who rated an 8.2. Ziomek, who said his job in real estate keeps him from going out much, has blue eyes and light brown hair and goes to the gym four to five times a week.

Using HotEnough.org "saves time and it does the searching for you, narrows it down to the people that you are interested in meeting," he said.

Among those who did not make the cut was Jeanette Ponder, a 28-year-old Internet blogger from East Orange, New Jersey who considered herself an 8 or 9. She said she applied because she thought it would make a good story.

"I got rated at like 5.7," she said. "When you put yourself out there in any situation, even if it's one which you're not taking seriously, it's going to sting."

But she also reasoned: "You cannot make a relationship by being arm candy."

Like it or not, HotEnough.com operates according to a principle that watchers of the singles scene have long recognized: "People tend to end up with partners who match them in physical attractiveness," said Margaret Clark, a professor of psychology at Yale University.

Pellegrino, whose day job as a project manager for a construction company in Maplewood leaves little time for dating, has brown eyes and a bright smile, goes to the gym at least three times a week and gets his stylish haircut touched up every two weeks. He was happy to make it onto his own Web site.

"I see myself more in like the 7.5 range," he said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.