This is what the #challengeaccepted trend on Instagram is *actually* about

This is what the #challengeaccepted trend on Instagram is *actually* about

Some also criticised the challenge's warped evolution, from raising awareness about femicide to "women supporting women," as a seemingly toothless approach to feminism.

A deluge of black-and-white selfies has probably flooded your Instagram feed in recent days. The driving force is a new Instagram challenge that's ostensibly all about "women supporting women," conveniently dubbed #ChallengeAccepted. However, the real meaning behind the challenge is more somber than it may seem.

As the #ChallengeAccepted trend proliferated, however, overlapping narratives about its origin and intent began to emerge. The original challenge in 2016, which also featured an influx of black-and-white selfies, was intended to raise awareess for Cancer, although critics of the cause (notably cancer survivors) found it to be infantilizing and Silly.

According to The New York Times, the earliest challenge was posted by a Brazilian journalist Ana Paula Padrao, and it gained momentum when famous Hollywood celebrities like Jennifer Garner and Kristen Bell posted monochrome pictures of themselves.

Cristine Abram, a public relations and influencer marketing manager for a social media marketing firm, quoted saying to the New York Times, “It’s all to do with female empowerment. There was this hashtag that already existed to raise awareness around other large issues. Tapping into that allowed participants to gain traction a lot faster because the algorithm was already familiar with the hashtag.”

In recent days, Turkish feminists and activists have claimed that the influx of black-and-white photos was intended to highlight Turkey’s concerning femicide rate and the violence Turkish women face in their daily lives; the decolorized filter is a reference to how the media features black-and-white photos of women who have been found dead. Last week, the brutal killing of Pınar Gültekin, a 27-year-old student allegedly killed by an ex-boyfriend, triggered protests in Turkey.

Marches in four Turkish cities last week mourned Gültekin’s death and called on the government to uphold a Council of Europe treaty known as the Istanbul Convention that is designed to protect victims of gender-based violence.

As the hashtags were translated, celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Eva Longoria, and Ivanka Trump picked up on the trend but the original context appears to have been lost on them and most Western social media users.

But, Instagram user @beelzeboobz revealed that the challenge originated in Turkey in order to raise awareness about the high rates of femicide in the country. "Turkish people wake up every day to see a black-and-white photo of a woman who has been murdered on their Instagram feed, on their newspapers, on their TV screens," the post reads. "The black-and-white photo challenge started as a way for women to raise their voice. To stand in solidarity with the women we have lost. To show that one day, it could be their picture that is plastered across news outlets with a black-and-white filter on top."

Some also criticised the challenge's warped evolution, from raising awareness about femicide to "women supporting women," as a seemingly toothless approach to feminism.

Sevgi, or @neosevgism,posted a thread on July 28 explaining the violence that Turkish women face and the need to enforce the Istanbul Convention.

Social media challenges are not new to Bollywood celebrities. Everyone from veteran actresses like Tina Ambani to the millennial ones like Sara Ali Khans shared black and white pictures of themselves in support of women empowerment.

Actress Tina Ambani wrote, “When we see so much negativity around us, let’s build positivity. As women, let’s push ourselves up rather than pulling each other down. Challenge accepted!”

Echoing the same, Shilpa Shetty shared an adorable picture

Sharing a picture with the hashtag ‘#ChallengeAccepted’, Karisma Kapoor also took the challenge.

Katrina Kaif also shared a monochrome image

Sarah Ali Khan also posted

At the same time, many are arguing that instead of posting a black and white selfie, you should be doing more to support the women in your life and to educate yourself around women’s issues.

So while on the one hand some women have been using the #WomenSupportingWomen to mostly share glamour shots, others have been trying to use the momentum from the movement to draw attention to important and pressing issues. So whether the challenge is helping or not truly depends on how people are using it. After all, context is king.

Related Stories

No stories found.
logo
Indians In Gulf
www.indiansingulf.in