Forget Match.com, I’m Looking for a Husband on Pinterest

Why shouldn’t I have boards for my ideal husband?

ByABC News
September 19, 2014, 8:25 AM
We all have our obsessions, and when we see something related to them online, we might easily fall prey to an Internet scam.
We all have our obsessions, and when we see something related to them online, we might easily fall prey to an Internet scam.
Getty Images

— -- (Editor's Note: This article first appeared on Babble.com and has been reprinted here with permission. Disney is the parent company of both Babble and ABC News.)

The team behind the soon-to-be-released thriller “Gone Girl” has thought beyond the box and onto the Pinterest boards. What makes the “Gone Girl” Pinterest idea so interesting and exciting is the finiteness of it all. The character who is said to have created the boards is Amy Dunne and, you see, Amy Dunne is missing. Or is she? Several Pins within the account have snippets of Amy’s diary. What is Amy trying to tell us about her husband on Pinterest?

I dig the idea of using Pinterest as a creative tool. Usually, it’s nothing more than a tool for collecting ideas for my son’s birthday party. I like to Pin interesting art and fashion I will never be thin enough to wear. It has an element of fantasy. I suppose it’s fantasy for many people as most of the Pins I see from my friends are allocated to boards for “dream kitchens” or living spaces out of reach.

If Pinterest is the place where we curate our wish lists, then why shouldn’t I have boards for my ideal husband? Remember the scene from “Practical Magic” when young Sally Owens created her true love spell?

“He will hear my call a mile away,” she said. “He will whistle my favorite song. He can ride a pony backwards. He can flip pancakes in the air. He’ll be marvelously kind. And his favorite shape will be a star. And he’ll have one green eye and one blue.”

Sally’s plan was to imagine a man who would never exist so she would never fall in love.

I haven’t branched into the world of online dating yet, but I imagine it is inevitable. I’ve heard horror stories about filling out the profiles. It would be so much easier if we could all just create dream boards for our ideal mates and then our friends would know, conceptually, a better idea of type.

Mashable shared the story last year of four couples who met online through social media. These couples met through Tumblr, Twitter, Flickr and Instagram. Oh, hey! Look what platform happens to be missing from that lineup: Pinterest! Why shouldn’t I be the first gal to find a husband on Pinterest?

It won’t happen if I don’t get to Pinning! I started by setting up five new boards on my account: the husband boards. I imagine other single ladies (or gents) might feel the need to be more specific, but five felt like a chill number to start with. When I think about how detail oriented some Pinterest boards are for aspects of people’s homes (doorknobs! window panes! built-ins!), I chuckle, pondering how that level of detail could be applied to the quest for an ideal mate.

1. Husband: Personality

More important than physical features is personality. I filled my board with funny and clever people like Simon Pegg, Eddie Izzard and Chris Rock. It was also important to have creative types like Bowie and Gene Kelly. Make me laugh, make me fall down with laughter, and then let’s laugh some more.

2. Husband: Dream Dates

I haven’t watched “The Bachelor” or “Bachelorette” in a while, but isn’t destination dating a thing now? This board is more suggestive than anything else. Of course, I would love to go on a wine-tasting walk in Carmel, but I’d settle for the Philly version of that as well. On my fantasy board, dream dates also look like simply having coffee or reading books together.

3. Husband: Accessories