Why do we have a filter based on race on a cuddle website? Also I've noticed that POC doesn't tend to have as much Karma.
@manaman - Enthusiasts are allowed to have physical preferences.
Because people care about race.
One potential reason a cuddler may have a preference: cuddling can be incredibly intimate, but it's hard to create intimacy of you don't feel safe due to trauma - including racially based trauma. I know a few cuddlers locally who really only feel safe cuddling other POC because so many white people are guilty of microagressions if not flat out racism. I can completely respect that as someone who for awhile had difficulty cuddling cismen because of my own trauma.
Beyond that, some people may wish to seek out cuddle experiences with people outside their usual comfort zone, especially if they live in a more homogeneous area. Cuddling can offer a safe way to counter internal biases and to learn about a wide variety of people with whom you wouldn't normally come in contact.
As for the ratings, white middle-class folks tend to dominate the cuddle sphere just like with most "new age" adjacent therapies. Yoga in the U.S. used to be almost exclusively white, upper middle class women because that is who it targeted and became its own subculture. It gradually broadened to where now yoga studios tend to reflect their area's racial and economic makeup more evenly, though still skewing more towards middle class and upwards. If most the cuddlers around your area are predominantly white, it stands to reason that they're going to have more experience and karma simply by statistical probability.
I think that as cuddling becomes more socially acceptable and more cuddle sites/companies and professionals do more to encourage diversity, we'll start seeing more balance. Also good to remember that this is just one cuddle community and that other communities may have completely different makeups. For instance, I've seen more diversity in groups that actively promote diversity training and restorative justice in order to create safer spaces, and there's also niche focused communities specifically targeted towards supporting various minorities (racial, gender, sexuality, etc.) that will skew far more in their favor.
I think it’s for the same reason we have pictures. As @cuddlefaery pointed out there are many reasons why people choose certain things, but that particular question is easily answered with a picture, i think. If someone appears to be racially ambiguous and they don’t choose a category they will get more interaction than if they did. But as for many, if they have a picture it doesn’t matter what they choose. If there is a “trauma” that is triggered by how a person looks it is what it is, i suppose.
While I like every single thing mentioned in the about me section, I've wondered about this also. And why there is a religious field when religion can't be discussed. I like the religious field and don't mind that religion is not discussed here, but I am curious. Regarding people of color having less karma: Not everyone does karma. I don't do karma because I'm not a braggart and I'm also pretty private and I'm mostly white. I don't think most people that do karma are braggarts. I feel the need to say this due to so many making assumptions. I'm just a realist that knows a few people do those sorts of things to brag.
But if I meet a good cuddler that feels strongly about karma I would leave some. There's not a thing wrong with wanting karma, but having less karma or no karma doesn't tell us anything definitive.
I'm such an outlier that none of this may mean anything. Best wishes on your cuddle quest manaman.
Race is a divisional phallacy created to line the pockets of the rich, perpetuate capitalism, and justify atrocities. Anybody that sees melanin and not a person first should be blind literally since they are already blind mentally.