When the maker of Grindr introduced his new iPhone app, Blendr, the media greeted it with headlines like this: "iPhone hookups go straight," "Grindr for women: Can the gay hook-up app go straight?" "Hit gay iPhone app goes straight," etc. Instinct Magazine called it Grindr's "heterosexual cousin." Gawker declared: "The new Grindr for straight people will never work."
I, too, called it the "straight version of Grindr." But a few watchful commenters have brought to my attention that I was wrong. Blendr is for straights, gays and bisexuals. It's for everyone. And it's not really about sex, either. Says GregV:
Blendr is marketed as a place for PEOPLE to socialize, whether to ask for a recommendation for a restaurant, make friends while on vacation, or suggest to a stranger to come skydiving (to use some of their examples).
There's no suggestion that it's for straight people (you can choose to leave "orientation" blank in the profile or choose to check whether you're gay, straight or bi if you wish).
The way it's marketed does not appear to lean toward dating or straight people or opposite sexes at all.
And therein lies the potential genius of Blendr. It might just make the world far less anonymous. I'm not sure why so many media outlets rushed to brand it a straight sex app, because it's neither exclusively straight nor sexual. I, for one, stand corrected. Maybe it's worth downloading?
