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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

Jennie Young
Better Humans

Male in devil ears holding a lollipop
Image credit: LightFieldStudios.

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:

  1. Critical Discourse Analysis

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