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Smile From the Devil: A Women’s Guide To Reading Dating Profiles
The secret weapons of avoiding bad dates: Critical Discourse Analysis and Thin-slicing
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In his profile picture, he is dressed as the devil.
The actual devil — not some funny, costume-y sort of devil. The photo is an extreme close-up, and in it, he is wearing plastic fangs and red contacts in his eyes; there is something that looks like blood (or perhaps actual blood) dripping from his fangs and drooling down his chin.
He sent me a “smile.”
Before I blocked him, I read his profile text, which was shockingly articulate and completely typical. In it, he even apologizes for the frightening nature of his pics and explains that he’s just a normal guy who is really into Halloween.
He also has other appealing attributes: he’s highly educated, gainfully employed, and, from what I can tell, good-looking — if one were to remove his makeup and devil costumes (he owns multiple devil costumes, I discovered when I clicked through his other pics).
One might be tempted to give this guy the benefit of the doubt; I’m going to tell you why you shouldn’t, and I’m going to use two academic concepts to do it:
- Critical Discourse Analysis