Auction Popularity: A Look at Some Underlying Motives

The March of Dimes has staged nearly 100 “Bachelor Bids” since the first one took place in Seattle, Wash., in November, 1985, according to Starr Murphy, national special events manager at the charity’s headquarters in White Plains, N.Y.

She said that hundreds more are planned for 1987 and proceeds have already neared $1 million.

Big Brothers chapters have staged similar “Bids for Bachelors” in Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Denver. The Los Angeles sale raised nearly $40,000. Other charities say they are also considering holding auctions. The American Heart Assn. in San Bernardino County has a “Heart Throb” auction planned for this month.

Bachelors and buyers both say their motives are charitable, but experts attribute the auctions’ success to reasons other than a sudden altruism in the unmarried population.

Dr. David Viscott, a psychiatrist on KABC radio, and director of the Viscott Institute in Sherman Oaks, said that women use the auctions as a safe way to approach an attractive man. On another level, he said they may be playing out “love slave” fantasies and thinking: “Wouldn’t it be fun to purchase a man--(someone) we could approach and with the snap of a finger, get what we want without having to open a bottle of wine,” while the men consider: “If a woman buys me, does that mean she can do anything she wants with me--I pray, I pray, I pray.”

Francisca Cancian, a professor of social science at the University of California at Irvine, said that auction popularity results from the challenge to traditional power relationships. “You take ways in which men used to strut their power over women and now women have reversed it,” she said, adding that role reversal also appeals to men. “Men like playing with giving up a little bit of their power.”

Cable News Network psychologist Irene Kassorla, author of “Go for It” and “Nice Girls Do,” saw other motives for the women: “Their underlying motivation is this Prince Charming ideal whom they auction for will fall madly in love with them and they’ll quote ‘live happily ever after,’ ” she said.

But professional auctioneer Carol Nuss, who donated her services to the Orange County March of Dimes event, offered a simpler explanation. “These women work. They have the money and they don’t want to go to a bar to meet men.”

The men who inspire such charitable spirit are generally chosen by committee. Peggy Corr, who coordinated the event, remembered that her group had gotten together and tried to select the most eligible bachelors in the county.

Some committees included celebrities, such as KNBC news anchor John Beard or KRTH 101 morning personality Steve Morris, along with others judged to be desirable.

Certainly the invitations were flattering. Said Irvine realtor Richard Nimmo, who sold for $950: “It was an ego trip. Let’s face it.”

Many men expressed astonishment at the high prices they fetched for charity. Said Beard: “I was amazed. It’s just not worth that much money to have dinner with anybody.”

Some women said the date package made the price worthwhile. Most women say they are simply having fun. Said Susan Moss, who bought herself a stockbroker: “I also like going to the horse races.”

Friends, or a few drinks, encouraged bids upward.

Women who never expected to bid, did. Said Susan Bartlett of Laguna Beach: “I was wondering what kind of women would buy men, which is what shocked me when I did it.”

Bartlett’s only complaint was the atmosphere. “The auctioneer had the guys strutting and I’m not used to that. I was brought up in private schools.”

But other women said that precisely such activity was worth the price of the dates.

Kassorla said that women should seek out realistic relationships instead. She said she believes that the women are playing with fantasy.

“That is the dream, this one-in-a-million shot. The woman bumps into a Rockefeller on the street and he says ‘My God. You’re beautiful,’ and they fall madly in love,” Kassorla said.

Cancian, however, expressed another point of view. She said there could indeed be a chance to form friendships through the auctions.

“Why not?,” Cancian said. “It seems like a bizarre way to start a relationship, but so do mixers.”