Why do women post such off-putting pictures on internet dating sites?

[I’m sure that men do too, but I wasn’t looking for men.]

I was browsing through a couple of internet matchmaking sites earlier in the week. I observed that a number of women (not more than 25–30%) post pictures that aren’t particularly complimentary to themselves.

If pictures are supposed to be a way of “marketing” yourself, they’re doing themselves no favors. For example:

- frowns
– what appears to be an ex-husband (although I can’t be sure)
– close-up of a tattoo
– the woman’s dog (not a picture of her, just of the dog)
– pictures taken from a distance – where the person is so small you can’t even make out her face
– pictures that are either too dark or too overexposed
– pictures where the person is one of a group of 5–6 people and you have no idea who is who

Do people think about the pictures that the post on these sites? Do they realize that a frown face on a dating profile is a turn-off?