Rollerblades and kangaroos: what LGBTI people include in their dating profile photos

A survey of more than 22 million dating profile photos from 13 different countries, including 1.9 million from Australia, has given some interesting insights into the online dating tastes and habits of LBGTI Australians.

Conducted by Dating Share, a website which compares and reviews dating websites and apps, the data was collected by an artificial intelligence algorithm which scanned photos for features and characteristics such as hair colour and facial expressions.

God knows what the AI was scanning when it got to all the headless torsos on Grindr…

 

 

The review found that overall 11.4% of men and 17.9% of women are looking for same-sex partners, while gay men make up 13.7% of the profiles in Australia alone (the study doesn’t mention whether it takes into account multiple profiles across different platforms).

Apparently the top ten most popular features in the profile photos of women looking for women were showing tongue, Pomeranian dogs, cats, costumes, lingerie, purple, freckles, pink, red hair, and “goth subculture”, whatever that means.

While for men looking for other men it was shopping, bodybuilding, superheroes, facial hair, toplessness, laying in bed, smiling, sportswear, ballet, and chest hair.

Lesbian women tend to show piercings and tattoos more frequently than straight women, whereas gay men are more “lightly dressed” and smile more often than their straight counterparts.

And it turns out that true gay and lesbian solidarity is poking out your tongue, which they both do more than everyone else.

A whopping 75% of rollerblading photos come from lesbian women and 60% of photos featuring kettlebells are posted by gay men, while men searching for male partners are responsible for more than 30% of photos featuring kangaroos.

One of the most odd pieces of data the survey flagged about Australian gay men is that they provided 0% of the “leopard-themed” photos on dating profiles, which the report fails to give any further information about.

Does it mean photos of people wearing leopard print clothing or actual leopards? Both?

Regardless, it probably doesn’t impress Shania Twain much at all.