Profile Politics

So this is some real life day-to-day politics shit. Most days my brain is back burner thinking about abortion trigger laws or the open white supremacists running for office. But sometimes, when I can’t sleep or I’m just bored throughout my day, I swipe through some Bumble profiles.

For those in relationships or claim to not be interested in the apps, Bumble is a dating app. It’s seen as the best one right now, at least among my friends. When you match with someone, the girl has 24 hours to reach out, otherwise the match disappears forever. Tragic.

In the case of two girls matching, the onus in on the girl who swipes yes second. She sees the match and has to make first contact. This is a stressful situation for me as someone who just swipes when I can't sleep and/ or just want to look at pretty girls. Because of my infrequent swiping, whenever I do, an avalanche of matches comes my way (brag) and I have 24 hours to make conversation with all of them. Which is a lot. 

But, humblebragging aside, there is a real thing about political preferences on profiles. There seem to be categories that people fall into.

There’s the explicit:

“No Trump people please” or “Fuck Trump”

or the more subtle references to other politicians they like, Kamala Harris is popular in LA.

Sometimes you can kind of guess if they say they’re into NPR or have photos from the Women’s March.  

Or, on the other side of the spectrum, you can have explicitly pro statements, or they, usually men, may have pictures wearing camo and hunting. Which is definitely me generalizing, but still. It’s not a leap.  

I personally have “Friend of the Pod,” which is a shout out to Pod Save America, my favorite and the best liberal podcast. Sometimes people know what that is. One girl asked me if I meant that I liked Tide Pods. Um…

Me. Not usually in Beverly Hills Me. Not usually in Beverly Hills

My real question is, how much politics should be in the actual profile?

Being gay, it helps a little bit because I can kind of assume that the other

queer women I match with are going to be on the team. But for my straight

friends, what is the preference? Would you want to know before you go on

a date with someone?

Is it just being a Trump person, or “Trumper” as my one of my family members

says that would be a no-go? Or would you discriminate against anyone that

still identifies as a Republican? What about a Libertarian? That seems to be

the current label of educated white men that voted for Romney.

A few months ago on Pod Save America, Connie Schultz the brilliant writer

talked about when she first started dating Senator Sherrod Brown, her

eventual husband. She said, “I looked up his voting record before I went out

with him. I wish all women could do that.”

I laughed. Alone in my car. But is that what we really want?

The answer to all these questions is probably yes, if we’re being honest.

Yes liberal ladies want a heads up if they’re walking into a date with a Trumper.

But how much politics should be on the profile?

Of that I am still not sure.