A week ago, we told you about a new Tinder alternative that sets up dates for you at local bars without any need for pre-date messaging. The Dapper app sounded like a great way for the typo-prone or the just plain vacuous to skip the humiliation of online small-talk and get right to the getting drunk part, but there was a clear problem with the app: for each date (which comes with a free drink for each person), male users were charged $19 while female users were charged just $9.
After we tried out the app, writer Sophie Kleeman argued that it “reinforces traditional gender roles,” complaining on Mic that “men are treated like creatures that need a leash, and they’re also given virtually all of the responsibility to make sure things go well.”
On Bustle, Aria Bendix agreed that the app and its Gentleman’s Pledge “have little faith in women’s ability to determine who’s a creeper and who’s not.”
Last week, Dapper’s developer, Josh Wittman, told us the testicle tax was being levied because “to some degree our company is about traditional morals.” But now a dapper rep e-mails to let us know the company has decided to embrace “equality for the sexes,” as the e-mail’s subject line puts it.
Josh and the team has decided to change Dapper’s pricing structure to $14 each including one drink for both men and women. The change was made due to criticism from the press about charging guys more and from some user response, mainly from men. In general, we have received such an enthusiastic response from women for the app with lots of emails thanking us for doing this and it’s a great idea! Women like that the app sets up a real date and that the chat function is not part of it. At this point we have more women users than men.
So there you have it, men and women will now have to pay the exact same fee, insuring that both people on the date are equally desperate.
Correction: The original version of this post was revised because it misstated the fee that men were required to pay. It was $19, not $21.