Feeld users complain too many ‘vanilla’ men on kink dating app

The charm of playing 'field' is fading away.

Field, a “dating app for open-minded individuals”, has been praised by its users as a safe space for sexual openness, honesty, and communication.

“The field showed me that there are men who can live in a way that is completely rooted in equality and respect,” says Emily, 28, who requested to go by her first name for privacy reasons. told Mashable,

But some kinky people are now complaining that the app has become too mainstream, as it's being infiltrated by heterosexual “vanilla” men looking for casual, basic sex – putting more women at risk.

The app – which gives users 20 sexualities and 19 genders to choose from – was originally launched in the UK in 2014 as 3nder by Dimo ​​Trifonov and his partner, Anna Kirova, as an app allowing people to explore their sexual expression with everything from BDSM to group sex.

Since then, its popularity has slowly grown over the past decade and there has been a large increase in its downloads in the last few years.

Over the past three years, Field’s monthly active users have grown by 190% and paid memberships have grown by 550%. Fast Company reported,

While some users may appreciate more options, many card-carrying cynics have complained that the influx of new users has diluted the dating pool.

Sabrina, 27, asked to use a pseudonym, Dazed Digital reported are concerned about this trend.

“It's not about gatekeeping or shaming people for being vanilla,” she said. “If people don't understand the importance of safe words and care it can be a safety issue. In most cases it's due to men not respecting women and treating kink as the equivalent of casual sex, or engaging in risky activities like choking and impact play without understanding how to do it safely.”

Sabrina joined the app several years ago to find a queer romantic partner, but believes it has become “harder to find single people who are ready for a long-term relationship with queerness.”

“Someone on the field recently asked me to send them a list of my kinks. When I did that, they were a bit alarmed and said I was a lot more kinky than they were – and to be honest I didn't send anything too extreme, it was all pretty normal stuff in my opinion,” she said.

Eli, 26, whose name has also been changed, also expressed frustration at the lack of men educated on sexually adventurous and perverted topics on the app.

“For some reason, casual sex is now considered perverted [by some men on Feeld] Because they’re looking for it through this app, but it’s not really there,” she told Dazed.

Ellie believes many heterosexual men are using terms like “naturally dominant” and “ethically non-monogamous” (ENM) to avoid abuse and infidelity.

“I think the language of sex positivity has been appropriated by men who haven't changed their sexual behavior, but now feel good about calling themselves 'sex-positive,'” he laments.

Generation Z has been credited with pioneering Sex positivity movement and brokerage More dating appsBut newcomers must move on carefully And do your research before entering the playing field.

Emily Lavinia, have been using this app for a long time, told Cosmopolitan UK that it's hard to find people who are serious about kink these days. Many matches “don't really know anything about the nuances of kink, how to be ethically non-monogamous, or how to get consent. And that's a problem.”

More and more women are coming forward with stories of being humiliated and harassed while using this app.

For Mashable, writer Sarah Friedman recalled an experience when a man “harassed” her on the field [her] with questions about non-monogamy” called her boyfriend a “kook” and deemed him a “pretentious c–t” for not ultimately engaging with her.

Unfortunately, online harassment isn't just on the field and in dating apps. Surveys continue to show that The problem continues to get worse , Specially for women and girls,

With the vast spectrum of non-“vanilla” dating and sex preferences among single individuals largely ignored by competing dating apps, Field remains an important resource for kinksters.

Emily joined the app last year and told Mashable that she found it “very refreshing [talk] There was sexual relationships with people, but it wasn’t transactional… it was based on understanding, respect and communication.”

Field CEO Kirova, who replaced former partner Trifonov in 2021, told Cosmopolitan UK that “there is huge potential for Field in terms of scale, but we have to make sure people join for the right reasons and that they behave in a certain way.”

“We are not trying to grow at any cost.”