A Facebook page is posting photos of women without permission. Source: Facebook

University of Melbourne law student Laura Blandthorn created a petition against a derogatory Facebook page, Hotties of Melbourne University, which was created so people could rate women on their appearance and write offensive comments on pictures posted to the page without permission.

Since taking a stand, Ms Blandthorn has suffered backlash, with one man posting a humiliating meme that suggested the law student was fighting to tear down the page because she wasn’t “hottie enough”.

A meme was created to troll a University of Melbourne law student. Source: FacebookSource:Facebook

Another man showed his support for the offensive meme by commenting “right on brother”.

Women however were quick to jump to Ms Blandthorn’s defence.

“Bravo to a strong young woman who shows she has more guts than the total of all the pathetic males involved in this page,” one said.

“The ‘old boys club’ days of the elite are rapidly declining.

“Women now have the power to stand up to sexism.”

The Hotties of Melbourne University page encourages men to comment on women’s appearance.

“This girl is a 0/10 I would not bang her even if they PAID me! F***in hell,” read one of the comments posted on a photo.

Another woman who had her photo posted on the page was called a b**** with bad breath.

The Facebook page also, in some instances, includes details about the women’s university schedules, classes and events they may be attending so people can “pick them up”.

Women are being subjected to derogatory comments on a Facebook page. Source: FacebookSource:Supplied

Ms Blandthorn was so disgusted by the page, she started a petition on Change.org to shut it down.

She said the page normalised predatory behaviour towards women, with men making comments such as “shoot me with tranquilliser right now before I got out to hunt”.

Ms Blandthorn said women were also being treated as trophies and something to be sold, with some men offering to purchase women for “6 goats and 100 gold pieces”.

The law student said the comments were backward and the ideas were “repugnant to the very basic norms of our society”.

The petition has started to gain momentum, with more than 16,000 people supporting the student’s call to close the Facebook page down.

There are pictures of both men and women posted on the page, but photos of men are often of a satirical nature and do not attract the same insults as the women.

A picture of a woman posted to the Facebook page. Source: FacebookSource:Supplied

On the latest picture posted to the page, it features a woman studying biomedicine with a caption that says “will give private anatomy lessons ;)”.

Since Ms Blandthorn expressed her disdain at the Facebook page, many have posted comments to Hotties of Melbourne University, sharing their own disgust.

“Disgraceful, you are telling men where these women are going to be, you post their pictures without their permission and talk about them like they are to be bought and sold for sexual favours, shut this page down, you bunch of sexist misogynists,” one woman wrote.

“I will be reporting you in the strongest terms to the University of Melbourne. You are actually breaking the law.”

The University of Melbourne is not the only one under fire for sexism.

News of the Facebook page comes just a day after a video was leaked from Sydney’s UNSW showing men chanting songs that “glorify rape”.

A handful of Philip Baxter College students from UNSW were captured on camera chanting about wishing women were “holes in the road” and wanting to “cream them by the dozen”.

News.com.au understands the incident took place on a bus during an annual “Boys’ Night Out” event on Friday.

The students have since apologised for “conduct of a sexist and misogynistic nature”.

Meanwhile, a University of Melbourne spokesman said it had previously reported the page to Facebook.

“The university will be following up again with Facebook today to repeat our previous request,” the spokesman said.

“The university is strongly committed to ensuring a safe, inclusive, connected and respectful university community.”

University of Melbourne Deputy Provost and Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Susan Elliott said it was a disappointing society that we lived in, where young men and women decided to post sexually provocative photos of themselves.

“Some students are not thinking through what a social media presence will mean potentially for their future careers with potential employers looking back on their digital presence,” she said.

Prof Elliott said posting photos with derogatory comments was sexual harassment and could have damaging psychological effects on those involved.

“Saying ‘you’re so hot I want to knock you unconscious’ or somebody putting a photo up saying ‘I think this person is attractive, what do the rest of you think?’ is extremely unsettling,” she said.

Prof Elliot was concerned the page made the community of the University of Melbourne look like it excluded certain groups.

“The comments on this are absolutely against our values,” she said.