Tinder achieves gender equality one swipe at a time: Column Finally the guys get the superficial treatment they have always given women.

Gabrielle Whitehead | USA TODAY

"His nose is too big." "Her eyes are too close together." "Nope, she wears glasses." "As if, he's way too old!"… Swipe left, swipe left, "Oh hang on, he looks all right… damn, too late, I've whizzed past him!"

At a first glance, the dating app Tinder might appear to be the archetype of the fickle, vain, selfie-dominated world we now live in, but dig a little deeper and the social discovery platform that is a "fun way to connect with new and interesting people around you" is playing an important role in gender equality.

In January this year, the Sun finally decided to axe its 44-year "Page 3" tradition of topless girls. By that time, the location-based 'social-discovery' app, Tinder, had already bagged an estimated 50 million users and over 1 billion swipes per day.

Tinder might have come under criticism for encouraging people to spend a significant chunk of their lives pawing over the latest mobile, social schmoozing fad, but in reality, the superficial dating app could be inadvertently feeding social equality and liberating 21st-century feminism.

After meeting the love of her life on Tinder, Rebecca Pickard, 39, a teacher from Clapham, London, is a huge fan of the dating app. After 50 or so unsuccessful Tinder dates, Rebecca finally met Sham Jivani, a 45-year-old plumber in London, and they immediately fell in love. Sham was luckier; Rebecca was his first Tinder date.

Rebecca spoke of how she believes Tinder has removed the stigma that associated dating agencies and sites with desperados who were unable to find love the 'natural' way.

"Tinder's fun, it's hip, everyone's talking about it. In London, it's become the norm. Life here is so fast-paced that people haven't got time to chat potential dates up through conventional methods, so they take the quicker Tinder route," said Rebecca.

"What's great about it is it's exactly the same for men and women — the ladies eye up the men they find attractive and vice-versa — I'd call that gender equality accomplished!" Rebecca added.

Though not everyone shares similar enthusiasm for the app.

Despite using it and even successfully finding love on it, some Tinder users are aware of the narcissist bare bones of the popular dating app.

Anna-Maria Albinson, 32, a travel representative in London, met her boyfriend through Tinder but still can't bring herself to fall in love with the app.

"Yes, I met my man on Tinder, but to be honest, I think it is awful," said Anna.

"Most people just go on people's looks. No wonder they go on about 30 dates and don't find anyone they like. It's really addictive though. People just like to see how many likes and dates they can get," Anna added.

Love it or loathe it, we can't ignore the fact that Tinder objectifies everyone as sex symbols — or not, as the case may be — regardless of their gender. Groups of women, having hours of fun humorously scrolling through prospective male dates, scrutinizing their looks through profile pictures, could be viewed as an example of feminism triumphing.

Feminism is committed to achieving the equality of the sexes. Unlike Page 3, which, by objectifying women purely as sex symbols to men, bore the brunt of feminists' angst for 44 years, with Tinder, it's both 'ladies night' with the single lasses and 'gents night' for the bachelors, every evening of the week.

Though we also must admit, it's the women that seem to have the upper hand over their male Tinder counterparts. From cheekily propositioning a man they're engaged in banter with to send a pizza to their door, to a group of women luridly dissecting the 'definitely maybes' from the 'definitely no-nos', when it comes to Tinder, the balls are in the women's court — adapting feminism for the 21st century.

Gabrielle Whitehead is a freelance journalist based in Manchester, UK and founder of PW Copy. Follow Gabrielle @GabsP78.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page.