By Lauren Duhon, SSH Correspondent
Recently, it came to my attention that there is an unofficial blog at my university called “Greeks That Matter,” designed to rank the attractiveness of students from various sororities and a few fraternities.
Now, I don’t know who is behind the infamous blog, but to my understanding, it seems to be a bored freshman fraternity brother who has nothing better to do with his time. . My university’s student newspaper The Daily Reveille wrote an article and a column about the blog if you would like to read more
Needless to say, when I found out about the blog I was more than displeased. Not only did most of the young women not know that their photos were being displayed on a website seen by thousands of people, but countless guys saw it is as a joke. One of my co-workers looked at the photos and made comments like, “She is hot,“ or, “She’s alright.” I told him to stop, but he replied with, “What? Don’t tell me if your face was on this website that you wouldn’t think of it as a compliment.”
This is the typical response I hear when things like this arise. No thanks.
I kept thinking to myself, “I know these girls. I went to high school with some of them.” If I wouldn’t appreciate it, I knew they wouldn’t either. And, I was right. Countless young women spoke out against the website saying it was an invasion of privacy, but unfortunately nothing can be done. The university can’t stop it
Now, I know this isn’t the first time this has happened. Countless universities have had .similar situations in the past, and in fact, the idea behind Facebook began like this. It is a shame that young women all over the country have been exposed online without their knowledge or consent as part of a sick joke to entertain students when they are bored
When will people understand that these rating websites objectify people? Every time a young woman is belittled and seen as just a number, it justifies someone’s actions of doing so in real life, not just online. Allowing this behavior tells people that it is okay to harass someone. It cultivates a society where men feel like they can pick apart women’s appearances and one where men feel like they can catcall and harass a woman because she is attractive and then make her think it was a compliment.
I was proud to hear about guys who spoke out against this website, including countless fraternity brothers and Chandler Rome, who wrote the column in the newspaper. These are the young men who can help shape a society where women are seen as equals and not just an 8 on a scale from 1 to 10.
Lauren Duhon is a student journalist from LSU in Baton Rouge, La.
