The Wingspan

Centennial High School's Daily Online News Source

The Wingspan

The Wingspan

A beauty contest on Facebook? (Amy Myers)

Facebook users are all aware of the exclusive groups concerning looks, popularity, district, and more. One group that includes all three of these categories is Hoco’s Mostgorgeous. This group contains over 600 friends from local schools, including Centennial, and has photos of people, mostly girls, who represent the school’s most attractive students.The pictures seemto be the main attraction of the group. Not much activity is posted on the page’s wall other than new friend requests and new school albums.
Hoco’s Mostgorgeous seems harmless with the little activity that buzzes around the walls, but the group still has potential to start an ugly scene and turn out to be like its listed sister, Hoco Schooldiss.  As many mutual friends of Mostgorgeous know, Hoco Schooldiss is another Facebook group that focuses on criticizing the chosen user’s pictures, rather than praise them. Friends of the group are encouraged to post a user they dislike and make scathing comments. The tools are there, and it’s just a matter of when the creators decide to follow in Hoco Schooldiss’s footsteps and attempt to damage another’s reputation.
Furthermore, who said Hoco’s Mostgorgeous’s creators had the right to judge who was included? They don’t. They have no right to sit there and simply judge someone based on their looks. Teens are self-concious enough nowadays and there is no need to further their insecurity. Being “accepted” is one of the main objectives among high school students, and rejection is hard to take in any form. There is already an abundance of competition to be with the “in” crowd, but thanks to Hoco’s Mostgorgeous, it appears that being “gorgeous” is yet another title on the list to compete over.

Freshman Jackie Paek was friended by the group and commented on how she feels being a part of Hoco’s Mostgorgeous, “My first thoughts were, ‘Oh, no another one,’ because there have been many other groups like these.” Paek explained that she accepted the request to see who was considered, this time, as the most gorgeous. “It’s very judging, and it features beauty on the outside,” she said.

The bottom line is that Facebook groups like this are being created to even more harmful degrees. Whether people are pointed out as the “Mostgorgeous” or just the opposite, it isn’t anyone’s right to discriminate others by appearance, and it can even be taken to a degree of cyber bullying.  Hoco’s Mostgorgeous seems to be a silent volcano—but future movement toward stronger judgments may just cause this problem to erupt.

More to Discover