Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. Wouldn’t it be cooler if her last name was Whitney Wolfe Pack? Sure that’s not the first time she’s heard that. (Photo: Twitter)
Bumble, ever hear of it? Me neither. Apparently. it’s a dating app geared toward “shaking up outdated gender norms” where “women make the first move,” according to ithe website.
Earlier this year Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd banned users from posting gun pics in their profiles, and in a recent interview with Fast Company, she explained the decision.
“When I started the company [in 2014], I really founded it with one main objective in place, which was accountability,” she said. “How could we engineer accountability into the internet? How do we make the internet a kinder place?”
It was that credo that eventually led to the call to ban gun photos.
“It shocked a lot of people, but for us it was just a no-brainer,” Wolfe Herd said. “It was just a natural progression of us trying to live our values.”
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The shock was due in part to the fact that Bumble is based in Austin, Texas. She said after the announcement there were “threats” made against the company.
“We’re not trying to say that we’re preventing anybody that behaves in a responsible way with the proper licensing to be on our platform,” she continued. “We truly believe that using weapons as a mechanism to attract a date is not right, and we don’t believe in that. We don’t want to validate that.”
Wolfe Herd doesn’t believe in validating people who lawfully exercise their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. As the co-founder of the Bumble and its chief exec, it’s perfectly within her scope to ban those photos. But it makes absolutely zero sense, especially for a company that purportedly cares about upending “gender norms” and creating a “kinder place.”
Perhaps she’s never heard the ole, “An armed society is a polite society.” And, maybe she doesn’t realize that nothing says female empowerment quite like a well-armed and well-trained woman. If part of the goal of the app is to push back at a domineering patriarchy then Bumble should be going out of its way to celebrate women who are 2A practitioners, not reinforcing the stereotype, via censorship, that gun ownership is exclusively a male-oriented activity. Women (and men) need to see other women exercising 2A rights!
What I’m saying is that in an environment where women are empowered to make the first move, they ought to be permitted to post pics of themselves carrying and shooting firearms. Guns in the hands of women don’t just symbolize patriotism, discipline, and self-reliance — they also send an unmistakable message to potential suitors, “Sure, I’ll take your kindness; but I’ll also command your respect.”
I guess she’s not with the program.
Progs are arming up to fight fascist oppression don’t you know?
In the end it’s her site she can do and say what she wants on it. I have never heard of it and after reading here won’t go to it. If you like your guns and pictures of them, don’t go there. There are tons of options out there I bet. Be smart and ignore and don’t use these sites. Stop giving them attention.
At thenend of the day who really gives a shit. Just another moron.
I live outside of Austin, Texas, and avoid it now at all costs. It used to be a nice little “cow town”, the center of government in Texas and home to the state university. It had a great live music scene too and musicians could afford to live and strive there. No longer. Austin is now a city of the “haves” and the “intellectually superior”, as well as, allthe high tech gurus so the whole make up of the community has changed dramatically. As far as I (and many other Texans) think of Austin – it is just a traffic jam on I-35 as one is head north or south through it. The US Representative “representing” the austin area (Lloyd Dogget) is a major dweeb and clearly illustrates just what a lefty town Austin has become. Fortunatekly the rest of Texas is strongly conservative and wise to the foibles of the left.
I guess the fact that my next wife has to be a pistol packin mama, and pics of guns of choice are a major selling point, don’t matter! Now, how to trade in the old model!
Cheeper to keep her,heh
Austin Texas is forty square miles surrounded by reality. That being said, if you a person does not like the rules, do not play the game. There are a buttload of dating sites to choose from.
A couple of notes from a (relatively new) Bumble subscriber.
First off, it is their bat and ball, you either choose to play by their rules or choose not to play. That said, I don’t remember ever seeing this policy nor is it enforced very well (bad filters). Even within the den of liberalism that is Western WA, I see pictures of ladies with firearms, just not very often.
The second observation I would share is that it is actually a disservice to their subscribers. Posting a pic with firearm actually conveys a conversation and lets the potential suitors know that the person that they are considering meeting is 2A supporter. As many profiles as I see that are “herb friendly” (legal here), must be “this” or “that”, it makes picking the direction to swipe much easier. Their policy has effectively made their app less effective.
Is this really newsworthy? Seems like a space filler of useless information.
Just imagine how much “fun” she would be on a date. She’s not promoting women looking for men, she’s promoting women looking for a servant, preferably a neutered one that is housebroken.
“It shocked a lot of people, but for us it was just a no-brainer,”
Due to the fact that they operate in a no brain fashion.
Austin Texas is left leaning and no surprise there. Not an issue, but reality
Stupid chkount.
Several things to unpack here. First everything with these people is a “No brainer”. Its her company she make the rules, but its not her place to engineer accountability into the internet. The internet is suppossed to be a free place. When given the chance to be truely free the community will self regulate. As long as the members have a couple brain cells to rub together and are not just virtue signaling to show how evolved they are. What if the picture is of a police officer or soldier in uniform would that be okay? Can you have a t-shirt withthe silhouette of a rifle? How terrified of your own shadow are you when a picture of a gun can cause you to ring your hands? Lets all pull up our big boy and big girl pants a let other people be who they are. If they arent hurting you or stealing from you(or anyone else) dont worry about them.
“When given the chance to be truely free the community will self regulate.” You only have to look at every single social media platform out there to see that isn’t true. Look at the amount of false information being spewed out by people on Facebook, Twitter, etc. The Bots and Trolls deliberately pushing an agenda; trying to steer a narrative. Self regulation never works (and is the fundamental flaw in most Libertarian arguments) because it assumes people are going to apply critical thinking skills, do research, question their own assumptions/beliefs, and actively participate in that regulation; which overwhelmingly they will not do.
Eric, you feel social media like Facebook are truely free communities? They cant self regulate because they are not given the chance. Facebook and instagram have rules and regulations. They sanitize content to what they feel is appropriate. The pont of my statement was if someone doesnt want to use a service because of a picture of a gun they will go elsewhere. People who who are not bothered will stay. That is self regulation.
Looking at the website near the bottom will show you the type of “men” they’re looking for…. beta males. Go check it out.
Virtue signalling is the liberal’s equivalent of the muslim’s “allahu akbar.”
“It shocked a lot of people, but for us it was just a no-brainer,” Wolfe Herd said. “It was just a natural progression of us trying to live our values.”
Key term: Our values. Translation: “Liberals are obsessed with demonstrating their putative ‘moral superiority.’ Thus even though they live their lives without really helping anyone, the political activism they engage in is dedicated to convincing themselves that they are truly good people. Liberals are driven by the need to validate the unspoken assertion that ‘I care more than you do.'”
So this Herd want to make the internet about being “a kinder place”, and were people are censored for exercising their rights! Hummmm!