Girls rate guys in new viral app

By Lauren Vujovich
MANAGING EDITOR

A new app has recently swept USD, at least in the female population. “Lulu” allows women to rate anonymously and review men based on manners, looks, commitment, humor, sex, first kiss and ambition.
Basically it is an app that allows girls to rate the guys that they know. Other girls can then read the reviews. Some girls divulge long hidden crushes that they have had on some boys, while others wreak havoc and let out all angry, and sometimes brutal feelings on some men.

The key to this app is that access is limited strictly to women, meaning the men are not able to create their own Lulu account and look at the ratings they have received. The app works by using a girl’s current location to find guys within the area. However, in order to get the most relevant pool of guys, most women sign in with their Facebook accounts. Lulu developers swear that it will never post anything to their Facebook pages.

According to Lulu’s press release, the purpose of linking the app to Facebook is to make finding men easier and more interesting for the woman.

“Girls register through Facebook, but Lulu only uses Facebook to make registration easy and fast,” the press release said. “Lulu never posts anything to Facebook, all girls are always anonymous on Lulu, and their activities are always private.”

When a girl logs onto the app they will see the profile photo of a guy, his name and a number between 1 and 10. That number is his overall rating. If the girl feels compelled to find out more information on a particular guy, she can click on his photo and be brought to his own profile. This states how many views he has received, if any girl favorites him and his average score.

Then there are hash tags to describe him, including among many “#workethic, #trustfundbaby, #forgothiswallet, #bigfeet” and so on. If a girl is still intrigued, she can see the reviews that have been written about him.

These reviews give the “Best” and “Worst” traits of the guy, all done in hash tag protocol. Below that is his broken down rating of humor, appearance, manners, ambition, commitment, first kiss and sex. These reviews are distinguished by the girl who wrote them from Friend, Ex-girlfriend and Crush, to name a few, in order to give background on the reviewers relationship with the guy.

Many girls at USD have downloaded the app. Ary Abraham, a junior, said that she finds the app to be amusing and harmless.

“Lulu has been a lot of fun for my friends and I,” Abraham said. “We have had a few great laughs giving our best guy friends funny ratinga and telling them all about it. They all think its hilarious.”
However, freshman Liz McKinley finds the app demeaning and thinks that it takes things too far.

“I think that the app is kind of ridiculous,” McKinley said. “I feel like it could’ve had the idea of letting girls know more about the guys around them, but in reality its turned out to be guys checking their ratings and girls bashing on guys that have screwed them over.”

McKinley said she was surprised with how much her friends care about what others have to say.

“I see all my guy friends talk about it and always wonder what girls are saying about them,” McKinley said. “It’s crazy that they care so much about how others think of them. I think it’s a bad idea and I don’t like the app because now they have to come out with one for guys to rate girls, which is going to cause chaos and girls killing themselves to change.”

Despite some women distaste to the app, according to Lulu, the app has already reached Top 20 in the App Store, with over 450,000 reviews and 250,000 downloads.

Alex Manessis, a male senior, is not as thrilled with Lulu. He not only thinks it’s an invasion of privacy but also could even be libelous.

“My first reaction is whoa, that’s terrifying,” Manessis said. “It is discomforting to know that an app like this exists. My second thought is that this could cause a lot of legal issues with libel. The app and its users should be careful with what they say, because they may run into legal trouble. I think it’s a bad idea especially since it’s essentially just putting gossip into writing.”

Sophomore Bryan Ruzich sees Lulu to be misleading and shallow but still sees it as a fun app, if taken light-heartedly.

“I think Lulu is very materialistic and can be misleading,” Ruzich said. “The pervasiveness of Lulu throughout the USD community makes it feel like high school, where everyone knows everyone, or at least their Lulu rating.”

Ruzich said that while it is a fun app, it is still judgmental.

“I think this can be unfortunate because some people may get a bad reputation or people may pass judgments on someone based on what is on Lulu, rather than getting to know him,” Ruzich said. “It does allow women to know more about the person, whether it is true or false, but I think it highlights the fascination women have with judging others. I think it’s a fun app, though, that shouldn’t be taken too seriously.”

According to Lulu’s Press release, Alexandra Chong, the founder of Lulu, came up with the app after going on a date, in which she thought they guy was perfect but just not for her. Thus, launching the idea of Lulu to help other girls find the right guy.

According to Lulu’s website, Lulu stresses that this app isn’t a place to bash on guys, but rather to help other girls find the right guy.

“The vast majority of reviews are positive—ex-girlfriends, sisters, and friends helping other girls discover the guys they believe are keepers,” Lulu’s website said. “To be clear, Lulu isn’t a place to trash-talk: Lulu’s review system makes it impossible for a vindictive ex to reveal the size of a guy’s itty bitty friend or claim he gave the Herp to 1,000 women.”

Aly Bori, a junior, is a representative for Lulu and has heard both good and bad things about the app.

“I’ve heard a bunch of mixed reviews from both guys and girls,” Bori said. “A few people told me it’s shallow and will only cause drama, but the majority of the people I’ve spoken to about it are pretty amused by it. Most of my guys friends love it and think it’s hilarious. They’re always asking about their ratings and how many girls have reviewed them and trying to steal my phone to check their pages out.”

Bori personally thinks that the app is in all good fun.

“I personally think the app is pretty entertaining,” Bori said. “It’s pretty comical to see what other girls have to say about some of your friends, brothers and exes.”

While Lulu is strictly a girls-only app, they do offer LuluDude, in which guys are able to get a sense of how they are doing, edit their profile, add photos, and describe what they believe are their best qualities. In addition they can read the Sex Ed feature to see what girls have to say about sex and relationships in general.

“At the end of the day, Lulu is all about encouraging good, gentlemanly behavior, and providing a platform that makes girls’ research easier and more fun,” Lulu’s website said. “Ultimately, we see Lulu as a private network dedicated to girls and relationships, providing an online extension and enhancement of the kind of information and support that girls provide each other in real life.”

As Lulu continues to become apart of the USD community, it is unclear what direction it will take. It could be here for the long run, or be another crazy fad that is forgotten about in the upcoming weeks.