A new Snapchat filter which effectively transforms its users into the opposite sex by adding eyelashes or facial hair has become an instant hit on social media.
While others have merely created memes out of it, one male Princeton student decided to do something a bit more extra.
Sean Lee, 18, said he took the gender swap filter for a spin on Tinder out of boredom to check out how men would react to his new female persona “Serena Lee.”
According to Lee, he wanted to make Serena as “generic as possible,” so he made up a bio with a preference for boba and the show, “The Office.” Instead of using his own university, he randomly chose another school within the New Jersey area.
In a post he shared with Facebook group Subtle Asian Dating, Lee documented how his catfishing experiment turned out via statistics charting his progress and graphs illustrating his target demographics.
He observed that within 5 to 10 minutes of creating the account, he received over a hundred swipes from men. He also noted that nobody recognized the filter despite the app going viral on social media.
Using New Jersey demographics, in which Asians are a minority and is predominantly White, Hispanic/Latino, and Black, he noticed the majority of “her” matches were Asian and White.
In an interview with NextShark, Lee shared the main things that surprised him during the experiment.
“On Tinder, guys can be disgusting. Among my female friends that use dating apps, they all talk to me about how crude and creepy guys can be to them,” Lee noted. “And that’s something I know and understand, and also wanted to see for myself.”
While he was shocked at the “astounding” number of “sexual pictures” on some profiles, he noticed that most of the men he encountered were pretty decent.
“As my alias ‘Serena,’ I had guys compliment my features and then transition extremely crudely to wanting sex or to meet up as soon as possible. But surprisingly, not all guys were like this. I thought that all my matches would instantly text me first and initiate a conversation but that was not the case.”
“To be quite frank, most of the guys were nice/really lonely. I had one guy confess to me how he’s a really shy guy and wishes that he can have a group of friends.”
Lee went on to share that he encountered only two men who were blatantly rude, with one asking him, “what can dat mouth do on dis d**k?”
In response to such talk, he would respond, “What would your mother think if you said something like that?”
Another guy opened up the classic conversation starter, “Hey, wanna hook up?”
He then asked him, “Among the possible countless times you said that to other girls, how often does this work?“
Before unmatching him, he reportedly replied with “about 20% of the time.”
Another noteworthy conversation started with a guy stating, “Well well well… look who we have here :)” When he answered, “an Asian,” the dude responded with “Lmao my favorite.”
Breaking down his observation based on racial background, Lee noted:
“African Americans tend to be quite confident. Their openings range from ‘hey beautiful’ or ‘hey, good morning <3’ to the ‘what can dat mouth do on dis dick’ to ‘well well well… look who we have here :).’
Asian Americans tend to just open with ‘hey’…. there’s really nothing much to it. Some added some creative flair to it like ‘hey, someone told us that we’d be a match.’ Some try to get boba with me or meet up with me later, to which I gladly declined.
Hispanic/Latinos also do open with a ‘hey’ for some reason, I had an easier time transitioning to how their day was or things that went about their life.
Caucasians definitely take my profile into an advantage. Since my profile had ‘The Office’ references on it, that was something 5 out of the 8 white guys opened with. This included ‘can I be the Jim to your Pam?’ or ‘How come I never seen you at work if you’re the receptionist?’ The remaining few were quite tame in just a simple ‘Hello, how are you?'”
Lee clarified that the groupings based on race were made only for convenience as it offers more distinct and similar responses than by using other demographics such as age. He further stressed that since his experiment was made in jest, his observations are based solely on his experience and do not represent the experience of others.
“The point of this all was to be a joke forged out of boredom that so happens to have a big message at the end. Dating can be vulgar and difficult for women. It’s just something to keep in mind,” he said.
According to Lee, he enjoyed his little side project while cramming for his exams as he “likes to learn and experience new and different things.”
Follow him on his Instagram account S E A N L E E @seaaannlee.
Featured Image Courtesy of Sean Lee
