Friday, December 19, 2008

Abbreviations

What are these "ISO" and "SWM" and "GM" and "SWCF" mean?

Not everyone uses these abbreviations, but, they are a common
shorthand for indicating marital status, race, sex, religion, and
a few other common things. The most prominently used ones include:

S = Single ; D = Divorced ; M = Married ; W = Widowed (rare)
J = Jewish ; C = Christian

W = White ; B = Black ; A = Asian ; H = Hispanic
M = Male ; F = Female

G = Gay ; Bi = Bisexual ;
Bi-Curious = Someone curious about bisexuality and thinking about giving it a try.

The positioning works as follows: First marital status, then
religion (if any given), then race, then sex. Usually what you get
is three, such as:

GWM - Gay White Male
SWF - Single White Female

An M or a W are used to indicate marital status. In this case they
are always in the first position:

MHM - Married Hispanic Male
WWF - Widowed White Female

Religious affiliation is fairly rare, but when you do see it, it
usually comes just before or after racial type, such as:

SCWF - Single Christian White Female
SWCF - Single White Christian Female

For whatever reason, Judaism and Christianity are the only
religions commonly abbreviated at this time; if you're of another
religion, I suggest not trying to abbreviate, as you'll probably
just confuse people.

Sometimes you'll just see "SF" or "SM" for Single Male or Single
Female. This means the person doesn't want to indicate race. You
may also see something like "S*F" or "S*M". This is just another
way of saying race is irrelevant to the person.

Other abbreviations you might see include:

ISO = In Search Of
FTA = Fun, Travel, and Adventure
POZ = HIV+
Soulmate = Someone I can be completely intimate with who will
be with me forever and ever, my perfect mate, my
special lover and friend for life.

So. Here's common things you'll see:

GWM ISO G*M for FTA
(Gay White Male In Search Of Fun/Travel/Adventure with Gay Male of
any race.)

Finally, all of these are often concatenated with age and/or
location. Such as:

BOSTON SWM, 42, ISO GWM, 25-40
(Single White Male, 42 years old, living in Boston and In
Search Of a Gay White Male, age 25 to 40.)

Not everyone uses these abbreviations, but a lot of people do,
because they make it easy for people to spot you and know if
you're at least in the ballpark of what they're looking for. You
may see variations on these abbreviations that you don't
recognize, but usually you can figure it out from the context once
you get the trick of it.

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The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense, and fiction is the truth inside the lie,
There was never a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn't be. He is too many people if he's any good. To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things and imagination is the living power also prime agent of all human perception.
The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.
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