Lulu: The New Little Black Boot

So, just ended things with a recent flame? Been playing the field for a little while, never quite settling down? What most men might count on with any fledgling relationship is the opportunity to start anew, learning from their faults, and beginning a new chapter in their lives.

A new social media network designed just for woman, however, might put a damper on that cheery prospect as it catalogs men and their particular qualities in a relationship. Enter Lulu, the one-stop-shop for all the juicy details on your male Facebook friends.

Lulu is not unlike an exclusive club that you can enter via your iPhone or Android smartphone, only requiring a user to input their Facebook login details to gain entry. This process serves two purposes: the first is to prohibit men from entering, directing them to an app just for them, and the second is to poll a user's male Facebook friends for the purpose of being rated later on. 

Upon entering, a user has the option of browsing their own male friends or millions of strangers and reading details about them. A user can only rate their own Facebook friends, and they are limited to what they can say. They are given a handful of selections to choose from, such as #SexualPanther, #HotFriends, or #DudeCanCook (all the essentials, of course). The profiles are set up much like a Yelp review, with photos and testimonials to help give woman an idea of the man at the other end of the profile. Women are also prompted to rate from a certain alias, such as "girlfriend, ex, sister, etc." 

Tegan Donnelly, a Plymouth State senior, discovered the app sometime during Winterim 2014 after hearing about it from some friends.  "I think it's an app that should be taken lightly. It's something fun to kill time with, but I'd never rely on it or seek someone out because of it," said Donnelly.

Some users, unlike Donnelly, may use the app to principally base their thoughts on another, or engage on a personal vendetta to tarnish the reputations of their past relationships. While it does seem entertaining, it might appear unusual to categorize and rate men as though they were a 'restaurant' or a 'service,' as the company alludes to as it parallels the app to Yelp. Men have the opportunity to remove their profiles from the service upon request.

Lulu might appear controversial from multiple viewpoints, as it reinforces dominant stereotypes and caters principally to the heterosexual community. Still, when used in the right hands, it can be a lot of fun for all parties involved. That little black book of yesteryear just got a whole lot bigger.