Grindr unveiled a new feature they’ll be implementing last week… voice messages. Yeah, not one we’ll be in a rush to use that on. How about a feature that scans their Whatsapp and tells you how many of your friends they’ve already slept with?
Of the audio addition, Grindr said: “The sound of someone’s voice says a lot about them. That’s why we added audio messages, an easy and authentic way to connect and express yourself.”
But not everybody is happy about this form of ‘expression’.
One Tweeter referred the notion as a part of a ‘theatre of masculinity’:
Because the theatre of masculinity on Grindr wasn’t feeling quite robust enough. pic.twitter.com/uVerIh4fym
— Joel Kim Booster (@ihatejoelkim) May 9, 2018
A piece on LGBT+ site Them claims Grindr “is a social environment fraught with pressures to perform hyper-masculinity in order to be seen as more attractive. On an app where the phrase ‘no fems’ is commonplace in profile bios, adding voice messages could just be another way to screen people who aren’t masc 4 masc or don’t conform to more masculine standards of desirability.”
Another Tweeter scoffed at how exciting the voice feature would be when people have lost the art of conversation:
https://twitter.com/kamilumin/status/994350293273010181?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.them.us%2Fstory%2Fgrindr-voice-message-feature&tfw_site=them
What do you think?
[Image: Them.us]