What If You Wore A Fat Suit On A Tinder Date?

In this self-described "social experiment", we meet Sarah, a fit, cute, blond woman, as she meets up with men from the online dating app Tinder (PERHAPS YOU'VE HEARD OF IT.) The catch? When they meet her in person, Sarah is wearing a fat suit and make-up designed to make her appear super-obese. Of the four men who arrive to meet Sarah, only one guy actually stays.

The takeaway from this that we're supposed to have is, "Oh my god, I can't believe those assholes left like that!" But that's not how I felt watching it. This wasn't an experiment to see how people reacted to fat women when dating them online. This was an experiment designed to see what happens when you lie to people. Spoiler alert: They don't like it.

Here's a thought: If the folks behind this video had been interested in an actual social experiment about dating while fat, they could have started on the app itself: Maybe posting and sharing photos of the fake fat version of Sarah, but also creating a profile with skinny Sarah. Comparing the responses garnered by the two profiles would've been a more accurate assessment of the straight male's general opinion of dating fat girls (albeit – here's the thing – a much less video-worthy one.)

That's not to say there isn't a tremendous amount of truth the the premise here: Bigger girls have a hard time in the dating world. I would know – I'm not a skinny person. I am 5'3" and, on a very good day, I weigh 170 pounds. I've also, because it is the year 2014, experimented with online dating, to varying degrees of success. Being not thin and dating isn't easy, plain and simple (just like being not thin and doing a lot of other stuff isn't.) So while this video's methods might be deceptive and flawed, the underlying truth is undoubtedly just as truthy.

When your society is programmed to expect women to look a certain way, it isn't just the dudes who buy into what's being sold – it's the ladies. I've missed so many opportunities because I was scared of presenting myself and being rejected based solely on how I looked. It's a hard thing to show yourself as you honestly are, and wait for people to decide to accept you or reject you based on one facet of who you are. But lying about it? That's not a social experiment. That's just lying, and no one likes to be lied to.

Image: YouTube