The Art of Pleasing

Abstract

This article explores the question of how heterosexual women and men present themselves on the dating platform Tinder in order to determine how their self-presentations differ, which social values they consider important and how they use creative techniques in order to stand out. Based on a combination of quantitative data and qualitative analysis, it can be stated that they use different motives and different creative strategies. For example, women rather show themselves in domestic and urban contexts and thus communicate mundanity and high demands, but also independence from men, while men present themselves as closer to nature, but also as conquerors of nature. In addition, women use oblique image cropping, filters, bokeh effects, etc. much more often than men and thus express creativity and playfulness, whereas men often post pictures that appear less creative, but more casual and thus demonstrate coolness. Overall, it becomes clear that men and women submit to assumed social desirability and reinforce stereotypes, but in doing so, they may also accomplish changes of perspective.