No, Challenge Accepted Wasn’t Originally Based On Turkish Women, But It Is Still Problematic

There couldn’t be a more ironically perfect Instagram challenge to ‘raise women up’ that one that causes them extra labour, with no financial return. A challenge based on how women look, that adds to the emotional load. I mean...

‘Challenge Accepted’ is flooding Instagram today, after a starter waterfall of celebs yesterday began posting black and white versions of actual modelling or photo-shoot shots on their Instagram as a way to raise women up. Now as it becomes a bit clearer what it’s all about– you nominate someone, then they post and nominate other inspiring women (we think?) us normal people are at it too.

But if you’ve been tagged, you’ll have seen that actually, this is a challenge that takes a lot of hard work. Whether or not it’s still happening this way (because I’ve seen people now just tagging some mates in their comment section or captions), the idea originally was that you post your black and white selfie (to hide those horrible womanly imperfections amiright?) and then identify and privately DM 50 YES 50, 5-0, NOT 15 OR 05, BUT 50 WOMEN and ask them to accept the challenge and nominate their 50 YES 50 HAVE WE MENTIONED 50.

Of course, as with any Instagram challenge(or internet thing), any element of good has already received a huge backlash.

Primarily, the backlash has come from those who have asked, well, what the point is? By which, they’ve meant, where’s the money going, what charity are you asking me to support, is there a reading list, what’s the learning here? We’ve become used to being asked to do more, not less, recently in times of activism. And just posting a picture with little explanation feels odd.

As mentioned above, the fact that the challenge seemingly takes quite a lot of work – no, not the filtering, we mean the picking and messaging a load of friends also says a lot. We’re reading enough reports right now about the impacts of coronavirus on women to know that what we don’t need is more unpaid labour(unpaid for us, unpaid for any charities too) to add to the emotional or domestic load right now.

The idea is supposed to lift women and empower them, give us a moment’s pause. But, as many people have said, why then has it leant towards the aesthetic? The focus on our image, filtered in black and white to increase the flattery? (With notable exceptions thanks Florence Pugh and Daisy May Cooper). Is that really what women need right now? For many of us barely out of leggings, probably not. I don’t know what the alternative post would be – maybe a picture of you kissing or hugging or laughing or drinking with other women? I don’t know, I don’t come up with these things.

Which leads us onto another criticism – who came up with it? One theory claimed that it was started originally to raise awareness of femicide in Turkey. In that context, the posed greyscales littering your feed might've start to feel strange. That claim has now been debunked by New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz (above).

Yes, at least there's been some profile-rising of the issue of femicide in Turkey, but that wasn't the intention when celebs started posting sultry shots. The fact that a number of deep dives don't seem to be able to pinpoint where it came from makes it all feel even more weirdly nothing-y.

There's also the fact that there’s a lot going on in the world right now . Well then, maybe this is the time to just post a nice picture of yourself and know that that’s ok and that some people love you. True. But there is also a lot of issues facing women right now. There’s poverty and unemployment – I’m sure the Trussell Trust could do with some A List stars posting pictures at the moment. There’s a domestic abuse crisis happening – again, if we want to talk about empowering women, then a fiver to a charity supporting women leaving abusive homes might be something that could do with 48hrs being splashed across our social feeds.

It is, of course, upsetting for some that this is going on while others are choosing explicitly to not splash anything on their social feeds. There is a 48hour boycott of Twitter currently happening thanks to its slowness to remove antisemitic tweets by Wiley – some have also taken this stance on Instagram too.

As Jewish writer Anna Silverman says, Challenge Accepted is all the more problematic in this context: ‘I find it especially stomach-turning that it's happening at a time when people are actually boycotting Instagram and Twitter over antisemitism. This selfie challenge is clogging up our social media feeds while people are trying to raise awareness about a real cause – the fact a grime artist thinks Jews rule the world and tech giants are slow to remove his hate speech. This ‘challenge’ looks like self-promotion dressed up as activism – it’s a distraction at a time when people are trying to have some serious conversations.’

And while I’d say, genuinely, if you’ve felt empowered or uplifted by this challenge, then great. But many I’ve spoken to haven’t. Beyond irritation of the above reasons, many have felt anxious (I don’t look good enough, I don’t have a picture like that) or left out (why has no-one tagged me?) or stressed (what if I don’t want to do it? Will that person that’s tagged me be upset?). All of which, is probably not the intended idea…

FINALLY, because some women think it's great and some women are a bit mad about the whole thing, GUESS WHAT IT'S PITTED WOMEN AGAINST EACH OTHER FFS. My feed is now plugged with those for it, those sneering at those for it and those sneering at those sneering at those for it. Not really the plan, I'm sure. But also probably not thought through well enough to avoid it.

If nothing else, it’s got us all talking about what really does lift women up, which is never a bad conversation to have. Undoubtedly we’re not as good as we should be at empowering each other, saying how much we love each other and helping each other. If we were, we’d be a force to take over the world. Whether that starts with black and white pics on Instagram I’m not so sure. But it’s 2020. Stranger things have happened.

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