#BBCtrending: Mocking women on Tinder
Meet Tindafella. The bearded Aussie recreating women's Tinder profile pictures with "hilarious" results. But is he taking things a step too far?
A profile picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of dating apps like Tinder, that's even more true. People can approve or reject an image within seconds. It's understandable that many upload distinctive photos onto their Tinder profile to stand out from the crowd, but is it acceptable to make fun of people for doing this?
This week a number of women on Tinder were trending after their images were reinterpreted. Tindafella - aka Jarrod Allen, an electrician in Sydney - began making the Tinder spoofs a few months ago. "The idea purely came from being bored waiting for a mate to finish work one day. I was sitting in his truck trying to entertain myself," says Allen. "So I started copying a few of the girls and sending them to mates. I later put them on Facebook and they were a bit of a hit. Been going ever since."
The images have been compiled on Tindafella's Tumblr and Instagram pages and they're being shared widely across social media. Many people have found them amusing, including the women featured. "I think it's hilarious and well done" says Tully Smyth, a TV personality and blogger in Sydney. "I actually met Tinderfella earlier this year and we recreated the photo together. He's a funny guy." Another woman Lorraine Mizzi exclaimed "I'm officially a Tindafella beach babe" after her avatar was recreated and shared on Instagram. But not everyone is impressed. "I find that Tindafella Tumbler at best mildly amusing and at worst just another in a long line of puerile internet rubbish that ridicules women" says Marie Berry of the women's blog Knockback. "It perpetuates the 'point and laugh' mentality that is rife online."
Despite a vocal contingent of feminists on social media, there hasn't been a strong backlash against Tindafella. His recreations have been hailed as "genius," "epic" and "spot on" and he has escaped accusations of "trolling" women on Tinder. "People seem to be seeing the funny side, which is the intention," he says. "There is no malice behind any of it. I'm just trying to make people laugh. Of course there are going to be people who take things way to seriously and kick up a stink... but hey, haters gonna hate." In the past few days Tindafella has received marriage proposals and has been described as the internet's biggest timewaster with far too much time on his hands. "People think they take a lot of my time but I'm rolling with the motto they have to be so bad they're good."
Reporting byAnne-Marie Tomchak.