Young Blood Runs Wild

This is bits and pieces of a Pedestrian.tv article I never quite finished…

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Gone are the days where a cheeky elongated eye-rape from across a crowded room are all you need to instigate a conversation with someone you wouldn’t kick out of bed.

It’s 2013 and with smartphone apps such as Grindr (for the gays), Blendr (for the heteros) and Brenda (for the lesbians)- things have become a whole lot simpler… not to mention creepier.

Unlike Grindr- which I’ve discovered is used almost entirely for quickies in bathroom stalls- lesbians turn to Brenda for a variety of reasons.

My friend Lisa* (note all of my interview subjects have requested that I change their names for the purpose of this article. They would like to get laid again eventually) thought that it would be a nice way to meet more lesbian friends after breaking up with her first girlfriend. 

“And then I got sent a full frontal pussy shot, shaving rash and all. That was me done.”

Brenda’s geo-targeting feature that shows you exactly how far away other users are has also proved more embarrassing than anything else.

My friend Naomi* – who is quite well-known in the Sydney scene – thinks that this might be Brenda’s downfall.

“It’s really awkward when you look up at a bar and you recognise someone from their Brenda profile. You kind of want to connect and meet people who aren’t already in the scene- or at least in your immediate social circle”.

This is something I found quite hilarious when I installed Brenda myself. Upon scrolling through the grid of lesbians near by, I stumbled across more than a few of my friends…some of them not quite a ‘single’ as they were making out to be.

Nearly ALL of them were using fake names or at least their initials however they had decided to go with legitimate (and flattering) photos of themselves.

This is an intriguing aspect of app-dating. There is a large chunk of you that wants to keep your name and face a mystery however you’re not going to get sent any winks unless you’re putting your best selfie forward.

Do you sacrifice your anonymity (and perhaps your scene-cred) for the sake of a few strokes of the ego?

I for one never really got to find out…the constant refreshing of the ‘almighty grid of flirty lesbians nearby’ was draining the hell out of my iPhone battery.