MELBOURNE “hotties” have hit back at a student who created a petition to destroy a “sexist” Facebook page, saying she has done more harm than good.

Melbourne University law student Laura Blandthorn created the Change.org petition to shut down the Hotties of Melbourne University page, because she believed it promoted a rape culture.

Pictures of Melbourne “hotties” are posted to the page and people are invited to comment on the photos.

Some women have attracted comments like “geez she’d get it” and “shoot me with tranquilliser right now before I go out and hunt”.

While Ms Blandthorn believes the page condones sexism and disrespect, some women featured on the page were not offended, and said they had only experienced problems since the petition.

Sydney Watson had her photo posted just over a year ago and never copped any backlash.

“Now that she (Blandthorn) has gone and drawn attention to the page, I am getting way more friend requests and comments to my image than before — and these are people from all across Australia,” Ms Watson said.

“Drawing attention to this only served to make the situation unpleasant when before, I had not encountered a single unpleasantry.”

Ms Watson has appeared on the page twice, her friend sent her picture to the admins the first time and it was posted without her permission the second.

“I found it a little flattering and mostly amusing,” she said.

“Maybe it is just me, but I did find it to be a huge compliment — whether or not it was intended as such.”

Ms Watson believes the page is harmless and never asked to have her photo taken down.

Admins of the page say they will remove a photo if asked.

“I didn’t find anything offensive in being posted on the page. I saw it as entirely harmless and mostly a bit of fun — which I’m sure is how it was intended,” she said.

“What is offensive, really, about somebody considering you a ‘hottie’ at your university? There is no world where I would consider this sexual harassment. I view majority of the comments as harmless.

“I will say that I have noticed more sexually explicit comments since this has had a spotlight shone on it.”

Ms Watson said she was “really cross” with the petition and the attention the page received.

She doesn’t think there’s ever a place for unkind and unnecessary comments but believes the petition has been an insult to free speech.

“I also think that something relatively harmless has been blown way out of proportion. Nothing has eventuated from this page. This page no more promotes the normalisation of predatory behaviour than any other Facebook page or group,” she said.

“The petition suggests that women are being treated a commodity because of very obvious satirical comments referring to trading livestock for the girl in question.

“If the bulk of comments were of that nature, then maybe these claims could be considered legitimate, but as far as I’m concerned, all I see are people doing what they usually would do on the internet.”

Ms Watson said the campaign to tear down the page was “incredibly offensive” because it suggested that only women could be sexually harassed, abused and objectified.

She said suggesting the page promoted rape or sexual harassment was a slap in the face to real rape victims and anybody who had experienced genuine assaults.

“I think the main point of how I feel is just because somebody is offended does not mean they are right. And it also does not give them the right to shut down the things that offend them,” she said.

Gianne, who did not reveal her last name, was also featured on the page and received criticism from people saying she was too skinny and had “her legs open already”.

People however did jump to Gianne’s defence and she said she didn’t take the comments to heart.

“The comments were fine at the start, I feel like the petition maybe caused people to go on it more and make comments that were mean,” she said.

Both Ms Watson and Gianne have been inundated with friend requests and private messages since the petition was created.

“In the last 24 hours I’ve had about 40 friend requests and woke up to 20 Instagram requests,” Gianne said.

“I don’t have any mutual friends with them and some aren’t even from Melbourne.”

A couple of weeks ago, the Hotties of Melbourne University page had 14,000 likes, it now has almost 16,000 followers.

“I don’t think it’s a big enough deal to make a petition about it,” Gianne said.

“If we wanted to do that, we could have. I didn’t even inbox the page to ask for my picture to be taken down but if I did, it probably would have been deleted.”

Gianne did not believe the page perpetuated a rape culture, nor did she feel unsafe on her university campus.

“I take it as a compliment,” she said.

“It’s not like they’re uploading photos saying ‘this is the fattest person at uni’.

“I’ve been on there for a year and not one person has approached me about it or asked if I’m the girl from the page — I don’t see a rape culture, if there was I would’ve probably been attacked.”

Yesterday University of Melbourne Deputy Provost and Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Susan Elliott said it was disappointing we lived in a society where men and women posted sexually provocative photos of themselves and said people should be more mindful.

Gianne agreed and said people should not post photos that ask for attention.

She said at the end of the day, this was just part of the world we lived in.

“Technology is normal and this is bound to happen,” she said.

The petition currently has more than 22,000 supporters.