"News" in the dating world, via Match.com

I would have missed this entirely if Christine at MsMusings hadn't found it--Match.com's 10 most influential moments in the world of dating! (The cats are now hiding under the bed.)

- Love trumps money: In the dating criteria specified by single women, income has become less important when choosing a mate. Women on Match.com have become less specific about income, as the percentage who specified an income preference for potential mates decreased by 20 percent in the past three years, from 76 percent in 2001 down to 56 percent in 2004.

They don't mention if men's income criteria changed, so I'm guessing it didn't. Or does Match just dispense with that category for men? Maybe replace it with cup size criteria?

- Ladies first: Women are more comfortable than ever when it comes to making the first move in dating situations, and online dating has helped make that more acceptable. Statistics show that it's working to their advantage -- according to a January 2004 survey of more than 300 married people who met on Match.com, 27% of the women surveyed admitted they made the first move in contacting their current husband via email on the site.

Yep, "admitted". You know, they admitted the sad truth--they are shameless hussies who email men who put their profile online in hopes that women will email them. I hardly see how this means online dating is making women more forward, because emailing someone on a dating website is one of those unambigious first moves that can get someone tarnished with hussy-implying words like "admit". In the non-online world, we women can make the first move while pretending not to. You know, by flirting. (I'm not recommending this, by the way. Make the first move if you want. I'm just saying, is all.)

- Politics and dating: A Match.com/Gallup survey of singles found that 57 percent would be open to marrying someone who held significantly different political views than their own.

I know I'm being unfair, but I read that and I read, "57% of singles don't give a rat's ass about important things and/or are just that desperate."

- Same-sex marriage ignites a national debate: Fifty-one percent of singles in a pre-election Match.com/Gallup survey said that marriages between homosexuals should not be recognized by the law as valid, while 41 percent of singles said they should.

I am all for traditional marriage myself, and therefore I think we should ban marriages between people who use new-fangled technology for dating.

- War in Iraq: As military deployments have stretched on indefinitely, the conflict in Iraq continues to redefine relationships in 2004. In the absence of face time, many husbands, wives and significant others rely on email, letters and phone calls to express their affections for loved ones while they are far from home. Many singles stationed overseas have been able to stay connected with other eligible singles by using the Internet.

One thing that we are sure never happens is lonely people separated from their spouses for months with no end in sight choose to use Match to meet people to cheat with, if only to relieve their loneliness. No one would sully the name of Internet dating by using it to cheat or have meaningless sexual encounters, you know.

- Online dating achieves mainstream status: A popular dating expert quoted recently in The New York Times said, "Every single woman in my neighborhood is on Match.com. It's like brushing your teeth."

After all, only single women brush their teeth, you know. Men and married people don't have to bother. (After typing that sentence, I had a paranoid flash and I ran to the bathroom to make sure that my boyfriend's toothbrush is damp. Yes. Phew.)