Raising money for that weird project idea you've always had is easier than ever before. Thanks to the rise of crowdfunding, there are ample platforms that can connect you to other like-minded people willing to throw out a few bucks. Sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have made a name for themselves by turning people's dreams into reality with a just little help from the internet.
A few of my friends opened up a brewery in Carrboro called Steel String last year and used Indiegogo to help fund the design and construction of an outdoor patio. In just a few short months, they raised almost $6,000 from friends and local residents. Two students who participated in Semester at Sea last year (the program I'm thrilled to be a part of this summer) raised the entire cost of tuition through crowdfunding and coming up with creative, travel-related prizes for their top donors.
I'm all about people reaching their goals, and sites like these allow great ideas to grow. But one of the latest campaigns to hit crowdfunding has me raising an eyebrow. The Dating Ring, a matchmaking start-up that began in New York, has started a Crowdtilt campaign to fly single women from male-scarce New York to male-abundant San Francisco. The company's overall goal is to reach $50,000, but it needs at least $10,000 to go through with the project. It would then fly "carefully selected" eligible bachelorettes to San Francisco over Memorial Day to meet their chosen hunks. The campaign video (which you can watch below) talks a lot about the "ratios" and "numbers" that have reduced women's dating lives in New York to such meager existences. The women featured say they wouldn't hesitate to fly across the country for love, and they plead people to support the Crowdtilt project. Dating Ring CEO Lauren Kay says the idea is one she'd been joking about with her friends for a while until she decided to try to make it a reality.
Seems like a harmless experiment, right? Take a bunch of single, male-deprived city girls and drop them in a valley of technology and too much libido and see who falls in love? But here's my problem with it: The campaign makes two poor assumptions that I kind of thought we were past at this point.
1. That women are moveable objects that will be totally uprooted from their lives and careers in pursuit of their dream guy.
2. That women always date men and men always date women. The "ratios" being lamented in each city only apply to the heterosexual dating world. I bet you don't see all the gay men in San Francisco losing a wink of sleep over it.
I can't help but think the women in the video come off a little pathetic as they bemoan their circumstances and fantasize about the opportunity to fly across the country for love. Kind of like when I cringe during every season finale of The Bachelor when the final female contestant doesn't even blink at the thought of dropping everything and starting a new life wherever her man chooses (but don't get me wrong, I'm still wildly and unashamedly entertained by The Bachelor).
Kay says the only reason they're planning to ship the women cross-country first is because of all the winter weather in New York, and she plans to organize another trip for the men to travel east later. Okay, maybe that makes it a little more fair, but the whole thing still feels like a reversion to traditional dating dynamics.
Kay says over 100 people have contributed already, but the numbers are showing up lower due to a Crowdtilt bug. I guess if it reaches its goal then enough people think it's a better idea than I do, but I can't say I'll be helping tilt this project to fruition.
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