Pref+
by Ch’aska Cuba de Reed
CW: S
exual theme s, sexua l assa ult
PLAINTIFF: JANE DOE DEFENDANT: REDACTED WITNESS: ANN WITHAM, CEO ‘PREF+’ REPORTER’S PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDING Did I regret the application? No. If we hadn’t created it, someone else would have, and who’s to say they would have done it any better? Do I regret what happened with it? Well, I suppose to an extent. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, if that’s what you mean. But again, I don’t regret its existence, and I certainly don’t think that the application is to blame.
FICTION
Know yourself. Know your partner. Pref+. The idea was simple. I’m honestly surprised it hadn’t been done before. We put everything on our phones and yet, I was still having these same tedious and drawn out conversations, awkward and flailing. What do I like? What don’t I like? What if I like something done by one person and not another? So, we simplified it. Here is my profile and here are my wants and needs. My preferences, if you will. Check a box here and there, share the link, and now you can access all this information yourself. Pore over it before our third date — I’m a third date kind of girl. Sorry. That was a joke. I didn’t mean to offend. But, that was the point of the app, to take awkwardness out of the equation. To streamline the conversation. And it worked! It worked for millions of people who downloaded in our first year. Sure, we had that initial pushback, but so did Tinder. And now online dating is the norm. As is having a Pref+ profile. My parents use it. It’s just as helpful for couples as for singles, maybe more so. And it’s about self discovery too. There are terms on there I haven’t even heard of! No, not because I claim to know a lot about this area — I mean, I do, but I don’t, you know. I just mean as the creator. Even I was discovering new things every day, new kinks, new methods of exploration.
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