Online dating shade is becoming unhinged.
Attempting to make a love connection with a dreamboat on Hinge turned into a complete nightmare for one lady New Yorker, who virally blasted a wannabe Romeo for trying to trick her into coming over to his house.
But unsympathetic social media mud-slingers are labeling the woman “high maintenance,” and saying she’ll be “single and miserable” forever.
“I posted a screenshot from a Hinge conversation on Twitter, and oh my goodness, the responses are absolutely insane,” said Clarke Peoples, 22, from the West Side of Manhattan, in her trending TikTok recap. The video has amassed over 295,000 views.
“On my [Hinge] profile, it says, ‘Open with a time and place for the first date,’ ” she said. “And on Hinge in New York City it has you out your exact neighborhood — not just New York City broadly.”
Peoples, a student at Columbia University, went on to explain that her would-be Hinge date — whose name and photo she redacted from her viral posts — suggested they meet at a patio bar near his home in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
“I basically clocked what he’s doing,” said Peoples, adding that she questioned the guy’s motives for inviting her to a restaurant so far from home.
“I was like, ‘I bet you didn’t consider at all the fact that I live super far,’ ” she said. “And he said, ‘I did consider it. But I figured you probably don’t get out here that much. And this is just such a nice patio.’ ”
An incensed Peoples then shared screenshot images of the less-than-chic outdoor bar, saying, “This looks like the Salvation Army opened up a lounge with all the furniture nobody bought in 1984.”
She continued, “For a first date you want me to travel almost an hour away from my home, or spend $60 [for a one-way Uber] if I chose not to switch multiple subway lines to get to it?.”
The bar’s lack of curb appeal notwithstanding, Peoples said the man’s offer to meet up at a location near his apartment was nothing more than a feeble attempt to get sex, calling his approach “inconsiderate” and “insane.”
“But it is very smart if you are a guy who wants to get a girl far away from where she lives, but super close to you so y’all can … walk back to your place afterwards because you want to get some,” she said. “That doesn’t even make you a bad person. It just makes you a certain type of person.”
And while her estimation of the situation resonated with some Twitter users, others rebuked Peoples for being too picky.
“Does your bio also say you refuse to leave your neighborhood lol? Why live in New York if the biggest problem here is not wanting to take a train or Uber to a different neighborhood? Sounds really close-minded and like a red flag,” reprimanded a commenter.
“It’s no wonder why you’re alone, desperate for attention on dating apps,” said another, who punctuated the dig with the laughing emoji.
“You on Hinge girl, be humble,” another added, insinuating that her standards were too high for online dating.
On Twitter, Peoples, too, shared a screenshot of an Instagram Direct Message from a detractor, which read, in part, “You are seriously out of touch with reality and need to reconsider your whole life. Please remove yourself from the dating pool until then.”
Conversely, supporters of her stance rushed to Peoples’ defense with affirming tweets.
“If a man really digs a gal, he’ll go to her. If he thinks she’s desperate and [he] wants to use her, he will want her to go to him. No exceptions,” one man tweeted in response to her posts.
“Dude was trying to give himself the home court advantage to take her back to his spot after. That’s all that suggestion was about,” wrote another.
“Only explanation is he’s just trying to hookup, not wanting anything serious, for minimal effort,” said another, in part. “Low-risk, high reward (for him). But he can’t expect a high hit rate with that strategy.”
On TikTok, Peoples clapped back at haters who called her high maintenance and condemned her to an eternity of singleness and misery, saying, “I literally have the most basic standards ever.”
“Being single is not an illness,” she said. “Men think women are as desperate for companionship as they are for sex. And that is the problem.”
She closed her social media address with a word of encouragement for others trying to navigate the rough world of dating apps.
“You don’t have to lower your standards for anyone,” said Peoples. “You can be single for the rest of your life, and you’ll probably be happier than half the people in relationships.”