App Encourages Male Objectification

If you could describe a paramour in three hashtags or less, what would they be? Allow me to save you the trouble of replying "#itscasual" or my personal favorite, "#toohottohandle,"by divulging to you that Lulu has answered this question tenfold.
Lulu is a dating app that allows female Facebook friends to view males profiles and select smarmy hashtags and comments to describe a chosen individual.

Lulu's purpose can certainly be written off as a silly way to interact with the opposite sex. However, I think that my peers' obsession with this app suggests a generational reliance on technology, especially as a means of communication.

We have an incessant need to be in constant communication with our friends via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email and text. Do we think our thoughts are so profound or clever? No, I don't think so. Yet, our need to be constantly in communication is a topic that's a bit of an exhausted one.

So why is Lulu, among other dating apps, significant? I think that using Lulu as a way to get back at an ex or praise our current love interest suggests a deeper and perhaps more disturbing cultural phenomenon. Lulu is an example of what's wrong with feminism.

To me at least, feminism is about empowerment and gender equality.

Am I right ladies?

So how do we reconcile our treatment of the opposite sex on Lulu? Aren't we objectifying men with every hashtag and comment we make on a Facebook friend's profile? From my perspective, Lulu is a chance for women to get back at men, to be the chauvinists and to stereotype and objectify men.

If Lulu's purpose was reversed, if men made such public and snide comments towards women, there would be lawsuits out of the wazoo. It is not only interesting that women utilize this app, but seem to enjoy doing it. How can any of us find it fair and morally correct to judge men in such a manner?

I find it slightly depressing that more people are not discussing the malicious nature of this application, and how it is perhaps reflective of gender relations.

I beseech Lulu users to remind themselves of the golden rule, and to remember that what you post on the Internet is never taken down.

Claire Ingebretsen is a sophomore political science major and editor of the Opinion section.