Role Reversal

Pumping some iron in the gym today, staying in shape. Pondering. That marital dating website, they claim that the cost of membership varies between males and females, to make sure the numbers of each sex stay balanced.

So, men pay a hundred pounds a month. But what do women pay? Looking through the site last night, no indication. A strange thing not to disclose. Maybe I should email them to ask.

Returning from the gym, thinking, there’s a better way. Entering the site. Signing up as a new member, free. Stating my sex as female. A quick search for male members, picking one at random. So far, no demands for money.

Now this is the moment of truth, it’s when you try to send a message that you’re told that you need to be a premium member, cost such-and-such a month, a hundred pounds if you’re male.

Pausing, thinking, let’s make a guess. I reckon, men will be more attracted than women to the promise of no-strings dating, the idea that you can have fun but without commitment. But I also reckon that there are an awful lot of women stuck in tired marriages, who need some excitement.

So, to balance the numbers, my bet is that it’s twice, maybe three times, as expensive for men. So when I click this button here to send a message, I as the new female member will be asked for what? I reckon, forty pounds. No, make it thirty. Maybe twenty-five, no, that’s too low, undervalues the product. Okay, my bet, thirty.

Clicking the button. What’s this? Apparently, I can just go ahead. What’s that mean, my subscription isn’t a hundred pounds as for men, nor fifty, nor thirty, nor even twenty-five, it’s zero.

Well, explains a lot. The women on the site, for them it must be quite fun, logging in occasionally to hold court before a squadron of eager and affluent gentlemen.

I feel like a turkey, falling for a line like that.