Amelia Pak-Harvey and Saba Hamedy
When College of Engineering sophomore Justin Doody created RateBU.com in December of 2010, many people questioned both the legality and ethics behind publishing and rating photos of Boston University female students.
However, over winter break Doody added a new feature to the site: ranking male BU students, an act that stirred more debate as to whether the site was still fair. Inspired by the film “The Social Network,” Doody told The Daily Free Press in December that the site was never meant to be sexist.
Many BU students said they were still skeptical about the site, despite its changes.
“I guess in some ways, adding men to the site ‘evens the playing field’ but it really just makes our entire college look superficial,” said School of Education senior Chrisann Thamum Papera in an email.
Papera said she didn’t know that someone posted her photo on the site until she received three Facebook messages about it.
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Amanda Austin, whose photo was uploaded on the site following the launch, said adding men didn’t make it any less offensive.
“It’s still the same thing, you just decide whether you want to rate boys or girls,” she said. “Boys aren’t as easily offended so they don’t care much about it, which probably made it seem less offensive as a whole, but it’s still the same thing.”
Others, such as ENG sophomore David Scott, said the site wasn’t offensive in the first place.
Scott, who is one of the male BU students on the site, said having both male and female rankings was a good thing.
“I thought adding guys made it even funnier and more amusing than it already was,” he said.
Another ENG student, who wished to remain anonymous, said although the site is offensive, he finds it funny.
People shouldn’t heavily criticize the site for objectifying women because women rate men and women too, he said.
Doody did not respond to requests for an interview for this article.
As of Tuesday, 3,408,296 votes were cast on more than 2,000 students, according to the site’s homepage.
Staff Writer Suzanne Schiavone contributed to the reporting of this article
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