University of Otago student Stacey Fletcher explains why she ''likes'' the Dunners Babe of the Day Facebook page.
Facebook's ''Babe of the Day'' is the latest craze to hit the world's most popular social networking site. I'm sure many have heard of it, as it has not only overtaken my Facebook news feed, but also gained some mainstream media coverage.
The pages, for those who don't know, are student-created, and reveal a daily ''Babe of the Day''. A photo is uploaded to the page, along with a caption describing the respective university's successful nominee and their studies.
Most of the universities around the country have had a page created for both a male and female babe; just to make sure no gender discrimination issues can be raised.
Otago University's page announces a ''Dunners Babe of the Day'', along with a ''Dunners Bloke of the Day''. The two are by far the most popular pages in the country, and the photos surpass all on the amount of exposure they receive.
The ''Babe of the Day'' page has nearly 20,000 ''likes'', which basically means that almost 20,000 people have seen the page and at least someone on it. The ''Bloke of the Day'' page has only about 6500 likes, but this is still 2000 more than the University of Auckland Babe of the Day.
It is obvious the female pages receive far more attention than those dedicated to the males, and women's rights advocates have dubbed them ''sexist''. I thought that as someone who is among the current internet craze, and a confessed Babe of the Day ''liker'', I was qualified to offer thoughts shared by some students.
While I cannot speak for all of the pages, as I don't have much to do with the ones outside of Dunedin, I can say the page is a light-hearted concept. It really is just a forum to acknowledge good-looking male and female students around campus, and doesn't intend to be degrading or sexist in any way. The pages are not suggesting anyone who isn't labelled ''Babe of the Day'' is unattractive, just that those who are posted on the page are ''babes''.
The photos and write-ups, while designed to show appreciation for that day's title-holder, do sometimes attract negative comments and criticism by other Facebook users. A number of photos have been removed from the pages following rude or disrespectful comments, despite the administrators' best efforts to monitor such behaviour. Of course, this aspect of the pages isn't ideal, but goes with the territory of such a public platform.
The pages do post some photos of girls (and boys) in swimwear, and to some people this seems like a total violation of privacy. However, the photos submitted are often found on the nominee's Facebook account, so if they didn't want anyone to see them they probably should have thought about that before they uploaded their photo to the biggest social media forum the world has known.
The argument only friends can see the photos doesn't really work either as most people have hundreds of Facebook friends, some of whom they wouldn't say hello to if they were to pass in the street. So, while I think it is a little unfair these photos are being exposed to 20,000 people without personal permission, I also think they should never have been on Facebook if their owners were opposed to receiving attention for them.
It is interesting to note that back in 2004, when Facebook was first being developed by Mark Zuckerberg, he controlled the site's predecessor, Facemash. This site compared two photos side by side with the intention of having people vote on the better looking of the two. Not that these ''Babe of the Day'' pages ever compare one person against another, but the general concept of recognising good looks on campus is a common theme.
It is hard to say how long the craze will last before Facebook gets hold of the pages and decides it is inappropriate to allow them to continue, or the administrators get bored with searching through hundreds of nominations daily in order to post the best candidate to the page's wall. After all, the page came out in exam time, when procrastination is at its peak among students.
The only conclusion I can reach now is to reassure those who think them sexist or invading, that the pages are not as bad as they seem. I know girls who have both liked the page and been a ''Babe of the Day'', and do not feel as though they have been subject to sexism in doing so.
Like anything social, it just needs to run its course. At the end of the day, it's another craze waiting to be taken over by the next big thing.
