Josie Cunningham is the working man’s Katie Hopkins – a professional at courting controversy. First hitting headlines for her claim that she had her 32A chest boosted to a 36DD ‘courtesy of the NHS’ in 2013, she has since stoked the ire of the Great British public with a series of bizarre, morally outrageous revelations made to tabloid papers. First there was that announcement just a week or so after revealing her happy pregnancy news to one magazine, that she would have an abortion if it meant she could score a place in the Big Brother house. Then she said she'd drink and smoke throughout her pregnancy because she was having a boy, and that she would have aborted it if she'd known its sex earlier. Josie announced she was getting cabs around her hometown of Leeds funded by the government because she was being bullied on the bus . Next came the scandal-slewing statement she was selling tickets to the live birth of her son – later retracted when a TV deal fell through. But that didn’t stop her advising A Level students on results day last month not to worry if their grades weren’t that great because they could ‘have a career getting your tits out or escorting’.
You might wonder what sort of endorsement deal would befall this type of celebrity. A diet book? A self-help tome? A range of affordable nail polishes? None of the above. Josie, who worked in the navy until she became pregnant aged 17 and has been a full-time mum ever since, has launched her very own dating site. A dating site to service – in its own words – ‘achievable-looking women who will experience a better success rate than many other dating sites.’ As if it wasn’t controversial enough to launch a dating site for average-looking people – the ones, by implication, who’ve been left on the shelf by online dating thus far – Josie’s gone one step further to enrage her detractors. The site’s called ‘Pull The Pig,’ a reference to that game groups of guys play on a night out where they win by getting off with the ugliest girl in the bar. Charming, right?
The pig idea came from me having low body confidence myself all my life, due to bullying and being told “You’re disgusting, your nose is huge."
The premise was ridiculous enough for some to label it fake when news of Pull The Pig’s launch came in May. But, four months on, Josie insists to The Debrief that the site isn’t only real – it’s now thriving. ‘Over 4,000 people have joined since we launched,’ she says, sounding proud. ‘It’s a nice environment for people to feel confident enough to talk to each other. Initially it was more men, but it seems to have evened out now.’ In fact, her business partner and tech manager of the site says that today 55% of the users are women and 45% men.
But while it’s understandable that Josie might want to carve out her own niche in a country full of daters addicted to the infinite left-left-right swipe of Tinder, isn’t it a bit off-key to encourage people, women especially, to self-defineas a pig? ‘I wouldn’t say that either the women or the men are the pig. It’s just a light hearted joke about myself,’ Josie insists. ‘The pig idea came from me having low body-confidence myself all my life, due to bullying and being told “You’re disgusting, your nose is huge.”’
As such, Josie believes she’s providing an essential service to people who’d otherwise feel intimidated by dating. ‘We all find fault with ourselves,’ she says. ‘It’s part of life. And if my website makes it easier for someone to give dating a go, then that’s fantastic.’ She even goes as far as to suggest that the straight-up premise of the site and self-selection of its members means the men who go on there are a different breed of online daters. ‘People, especially guys, just go on [other dating sites] because they know there’s an ocean of decent looking women that are happy to put out on the first night and things like that. Whereas my site does seem to be more about people that are wanting to make long term friendships or relationships.’
There’s a poignant, sad truth in the fact that there’s no shortage of women – women who look far from pig-like – who have taken time to craft their dating profile.
So far, so worthy. But a different picture emerges when I spend a week cruising the site both using my own female profile – and borrowing a male friend’s picture to get a sense from the opposite sex’s perspective, too. There’s a poignant, sad truth in the fact that there’s no shortage of women – women who look far from pig-like – who have taken time to craft their dating profile. ‘I’m looking for someone I can click with and have a fantastic time with doing loads of new things,’ writes one brunette with aqua-blue eyes and a gorgeous grin. ‘I’m an easy-going, sociable person who has a great passion for life. I enjoy horse riding, shooting, Young Farmers, dancing, socialising and love spending time with my friends and family,’ writes another with dainty features, red hair and a delicate smile – maybe not everyone’s idea of a catch, but a catch all the same.
But the men I’m immediately matched with (the site works by showing you everyone you’re compatible with in the nearest 25-mile radius for free, and charging £19.99 a month to look further) include one called 8919l13n3sahc, another called ‘Mr sweet,’ three using the name Billy (with no photo) and one whose profile picture is a close-up of his dick taken with a flash, like a zoomed-in budget Terry Richardson. None have fully completed profiles - merely featuring a blurb informing me ‘Bazza86 has not filled out an about me yet. Send them a message to find out more about them!’ Of the men who do have actual entries on their profile, we’ve got a man who says his location is India: ‘Hi, I m simple guy… looking for simple girl who is ready for serious relationship…’ next to a picture of him on a bench. And a man with the username ‘saggys007’ who has the blurb ‘CoNtAcT Me FoR FuNNNN’ and has also listed his location as ‘India.'
It’s a depressing state of affairs. But one that, I put to Josie, is perhaps inevitable for a site that’s set up (in her own words) for ‘women that wouldn’t really stand a chance next to your typical skinny blonde.’ Equally inevitably she disagrees, insisting there’s a simple, less sinister reason behind all those incomplete profiles. ‘It’s probably because they’re new to the site, but it could also be because they have low self-esteem or body-confidence after a lifetime of bullying over their appearance like I did myself.’
And as for the criticism that telling those who already have low self-esteem they belong on a site for second-rate, average-looking people won’t help? Josie’s unrepentant. ‘I think there’s no shame,’ she says. ‘Because it would be like being seen in a charity shop or something; you wouldn’t be seen in a charity shop unless the people seeing you were in there themselves.’
We've all heard about being 'left on the shelf', but who wants to be collecting dust in a hidden corner of the charity shop of internet dating?
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.