By Liz Puranam
An Australian dating website has enraged Kiwi women by organising an event where the women attending must be size 10 or under, while the men can be any size they like.
Fast Impressions say they're just catering to men who like slender women, but women here say it's discrimination.
Lea Devereaux is five feet seven inches and weighs 55 kilos. She's usually a size eight or nine, so when the dating company she signed up with a year ago was holding an event called "slender women", they sent her an invitation.
“So they send you an invitation saying you have to be between a size 6 and 10 to go. I would never go on principle alone. I was appalled,
“If you are under a size 10, you can come to this. However, the men that are invited to this can be any size that they like. Get real! That's discrimination, against women, but in general, it's wrong,” she says.
The invitation is for those who identify with a fit and trim body type, but women's groups say that encourages bad body image.
‘We have so many New Zealand women who are worried about the way they look and it's preventing them from going to social events, it's interfering with their self esteem and their health practises and it's these types of events and these types of messages that are adding to the problem,” says Deb Schwarz of the Eating Difficulties Education Network.
But Fast Impressions says it's just responding to demand from its clients in Auckland who wanted such an event.
“I don't think dating is really about political correctness or discrimination. You've either got a preference or you don't.
“That's the nature of dating and what we do is we simply meet that demand and put on events that we know our members want to go to,” says CEO Justin Parfitt.
He says the event, scheduled for July, is almost full.
3 News also spoke with Auckland's largest speed dating establishment Table for Six this evening, who told us they would never hold such an event because even if there is a demand, it is still discrimination and derogatory to women.
3 News