What happened to Vota Mi Cuerpo, the meat market that laid the foundations for Tinder without knowing it

When they had to find a name, the creators of “Vote my body” did not break their horns. They got to the point. To bread, bread. To wine, wine. And to baptize a shameless flirting network, worthy of the funniest suburban bar in Madrid, what better than a direct and precise domainas clear as a signalman with a reflective vest moving pennants in T4: Votamicorps.

Why be subtle?

We lived in the early 2000s, social media culture wasn’t nearly as well oiled as it is now, sexting it was a strange word and for the Tinder boom there were still a few years left. If it was about showing (and searching) chub, why not make it clear already from the name itself. You know, much to Bécquer’s regret, flirtation is not always synonymous with delicacy.

The youngest of the place may be surprised, but in Spain there was a time when, indeed, a social network called Vote my body worked that achieved some popularity between young and pubertal. Its dynamic was simpler than the score of some maracas: you took a photo of yourself as well as possible, you posted it on the web and you waited for others to rate it.

The what exactly? Well, that’s what the domain was there for, to remind you: your body.

another way to vote

If we think about the years of the BlackBerry or the psychedelic Motorola AURA It is not hard to imagine what kind of portraits populated the web. profusion of selfies in front of the bathroom mirror or the one in the closet with lighting worthy of the best B movie and, above all, boys and girls sticking their guts out, sticking out their chests and playing with the angles and cuts to show their most hot.

Eye, not everything was photo and score.

In Vota mi cuerpo there was also room for an experimental prose that seemed to have revolted to the tildespoints and other sterile superficialities of the Royal Spanish Academy. Rereading them tombs down that in any past time it was better written.

“Hello wapa dk zone are you?? Well, are you fine? If you want, can you pass me your msn? kisses”, Fran, a young man from Girona, responded (sic) to the photo of a twenty-year-old woman who posed with sunglasses in front of the bathroom mirror at home. the digital camera in one hand and the porcelain of the toilet in the background. Very much in line, everything must be said, with Fran himself, who shines in his torso profile from the rooftops.

A page called: Vote for my body just came to mind

Where you literally upload photos of yourself and people rate you from 1 to 10 pic.twitter.com/sKvVVx5Zeo

— RoberSwart ? (@RoberSwart) February 9, 2022

The web boasted of adding about ten million contacts. The truth is that the domain votemibody.com it is still active and shows a good collection of snapshots. “We have more than 3,000,000 users from cities in Spain such as Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Seville…”, he details before releasing a long list of Spanish cities and Spanish-speaking countries.

And if the name were not explanatory enough, it includes on its cover a brief but frank statement of intents: “Votami Cuerpo is a social network aimed at boys and girls who want to have fun viewing and voting on photos of other users, meet new people and make friends, chat, flirt, flirt; and even find love. That, of course, there was everything in the vineyards of the social network. Between the body vote and the body vote there were also those who were looking for Cupid.

Does that mean that the website is still operating?

It is not easy to answer it. Let’s see. Votamibody.com can be visited, but when you try to register you end up being redirected to a portal with racy images and a warning: “You are about to see photos of naked women you may know”. Message that, everything is said, may be a little late because it is enlivened with a moving gallery of naked ladies.

In an article from 2017 Culturplaza explains that if at that time you tried to sign up, the platform showed you another notice: “Vote My Body has joined Badu, so you must register here to access our users.” Together, he assured, they added no less than twenty million users. If you advanced in the process to register, Culturplaza points out, you arrived at a third website that already offered without half measures “romance for the Latinos of the world.”

If we resign ourselves, we go from registration and directly see the “new users” of the web, we find photos of boys and girls who supposedly registered over the last few months, although, yes, with some other wink old-school which casts doubt on when their photos will actually date: there are those who pose with a digital camera in front of the toilet mirror in the midst of the smartphone and HDR era, as well as references to platforms that have long since passed away, such as Tuenti. A girl supposedly registered 23 months ago is even asked for the MSN.

In networks, things are not very buoyant either.

Your last post on the facebook profile to which the website refers is a comment from June 2014 in which it boasts of having exceeded ten million users.

“I think the website no longer works, it’s many years old and I don’t think they’ve continued with the maintenance… I’m trying to register and it redirects me to other dating sites and similar ads…”, a frustrated Arzo wrote on his wall. Facebook back in 2013. “How can you get in there,” another young man insisted (sic) with no apparent response in the last message on the network.

On twitter the account included on the cover directly does not exist.

Although seen in perspective its approach may be surprising, Vota Mi Cuerpo achieved a certain popularity, especially among the youngest, which translated into a generous flow of photos and something else, much less fun: debate and an ideal space for users with shady intentions.

In 2012 Friendly screens alerted that there were minors who, after appearing online and participating in forums, had been victims of a sextortionist. The case breaks it down in greater detail The world, which talks about a young man who was dedicated to seeing girls on Votamicorpo.com “as provocative as possible” and was facing charges of cyberbullying. Among his victims was a 14-year-old girl.

The platform’s approach also generated deep discomfort among those who warned of its effect on younger users. “ESO children worship their body, their image, perhaps imagining that their ego will be strengthened after the comments of the voters. A game that, in the opinion of some psychologists, can wreak havoc on the minds of these young people”, collected in April 2007 an article published in the newspaper The confidentialbefore the notice of Screens.

Other similar reviews could be read on parent forums in which images were censored with a more than evident erotic letter from users who had not yet blown out the 18 candles.

“There are many adolescents who expose personal images in a naive and innocent way, hoping to obtain a good assessment and positive comments, and what they find are insults and humiliations, causing serious emotional damage and serious interpersonal conflicts,” he came to collect. a presentation posted on the website of the Community of Madrid in which they spoke precisely of the dangers of the networks and cited the case of Vote my body.

Things from a time when we were not so shot with the networks.

And we showed ourselves without a filter, thinking about the footprint we left or who could see us.

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