l'amour Part Three: The "Category Three" Offender

Allow me to address the uncomfortable subject of what I, in a previous blog, indelicately referred to as the "dick picture", but from this day on shall be officially known as a "Category Three" (you heard it here first!) As I mentioned in Part One of the "l'amour" series, after I divorced and threw my hat into the internet dating ring I noticed three distinct categories of respondants; Younger Men, Married Men, and the Category Three Offender - the man who introduces himself with a picture of his penis. (I warned you this was an uncomfortable subject!) Does the Category Three begin his response with a friendly "Hello, my name is Steve, I'm a single dad with two teenage kids....."? No. Perhaps a "Hi I'm Chuck, I liked your profile and would like to invite you for coffee..." Wrong again. You open your email, (hoping that George Clooney has finally come to his senses and started trawling Yahoo Personals instead of coctail lounges, and is utterly transfixed by you) only to be confronted with an unsolicited, and more often than not, unimpressive zizi. The first time it happened, I was in an internet café when up popped such a picture, full screen! (no pun intended) It was the WTF moment of the day-perhaps even the week. Now, my friends know that I am not shy, but I nervously looked behind my shoulder as I hit "delete", hoping the little boys playing World of Warcraft nearby remained oblivious. I was experiencing a myriad of emotions, from embarrassment to confusion to disgust, laced with a touch of humour and alot of curiosity - why would someone do such a thing? Does a Category Three often get lucky with this technique? Does he email scores of women in hopes that he impresses one enough to garner a reply? Or worse, was he a modern day "flasher", using the power of the internet to reach far more victims from the safety of his home? I had to know, so I asked a friend of mine who is a psychiatrist. In her opinion it is the latter, in cyberspace one has potential access to thousands of people, with minimal risk. I have however, noticed the occassional Category Three posted as a profile, sans manscape (sorry for the unwanted visual), and I remain curious as to the success rate as well as the mindset of this group. One thing I am sure of, it's just not correct!