Britons among the ugliest people, dating site says

Britons among the ugliest people, dating site says
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune and Reuters
November 12, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-talk-ugly-britonsnov12,0,5474168.story


LONDON -- Britons are among the ugliest people in the world, according to a dating Web site that says it only allows "beautiful people" to join.

Fewer than one in eight British men and just three in 20 women who have applied to BeautifulPeople.com have been accepted, an e-mailed statement from the Web site showed.

Existing members of the "elite dating site" rate how attractive potential members are, after applicants upload a recent photo and personal profile.

Swedish men have proved the most successful, with 65 percent being accepted, while Norwegian women are considered the most beautiful with 76 percent accepted, the Web site said.

The way that BeautifulPeople.com accepts new members is simple. A potential member applies with a photo and a brief profile. Over 48 hours, existing members of the opposite sex vote whether to admit him or her, the site said.

Options are: "Yes definitely," "Hmm yes, OK," "Hmm no, not really" and "No definitely not."

The site was founded in 2002 in Denmark and went live worldwide last month. Since then, the site has rejected nearly 1.8 million people from 190 countries, admitting just 360,000 new members.

"I would say Britain is stumbling because they don't spend as much time polishing up their appearance and they are letting themselves down on physical fitness," Beautiful People managing director Greg Hodge said.