Over the past week, your Instagram feed was likely flooded with black and white photos captioned #ChallengeAccepted. This challenge quickly took off online with celebrities and regular Instagram users alike posting flattering selfies or individual photos. Here’s how it works: someone posts a black and white photo of themselves and nominates one or more incredible women they know. Those nominated then post their own black and white image and nominate other women, and so on. Millions of women posted these photos, however the origins of this challenge were unfortunately lost in the sea of selfies.
The intention of the #ChallengeAccepted movement was largely perceived as promoting feminism and female empowerment. Many captions of these photos referenced women supporting each other, which of course is imperative in today’s society and needs to be further encouraged. Celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Ivanka Trump, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Garner and many others posted black and white images of themselves for the #ChallengeAccepted movement. Accounts with large followings such as these caused the movement to gain traction and spread worldwide, promoting female empowerment to millions. However, many of these celebrities’ posts failed to include the real meaning behind the hashtag.
Although the origins of #ChallengeAccepted were difficult to place initially, as some believed the movement began in Brazil or the US, it is now understood that it started in Turkey, in response to the alarming femicide rates. One instance of violence in Turkey particularly shocked the nation and encouraged this call to action. Pinar Gültekin, a 27-year-old woman, was murdered on July 16 by her ex-boyfriend. This tragic demonstration of gender-based violence is sadly one of many that occur every year in Turkey; 474 women were killed in 2019. These numbers are expected to increase further in 2020 given the context of COVID-19 lockdowns. Amid this upsurge of violence against women, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party have attempted to remove important legislation, such as the Istanbul Convention, which protects victims of domestic violence.
The culture of gender-based violence and oppression that exists in Turkey is amplified by an imbalanced legal system and lenient sentences for offenders. The push from Turkish activists to toughen punishments for those convicted of gender-based violence is what sparked the social media movement that morphed into #ChallengeAccepted. The original hashtags trending in Turkey referenced the Istanbul Convention and violence against women but unfortunately, much of this message was lost in translation once the black and white photos reached the Western world. These hashtags were dropped and replaced with messages of female empowerment. In many cases, there was no mention of the hundreds of women killed in Turkey each year or even gender-based violence. The significance of the photographs being black and white was also largely misunderstood; the aim was to replicate the black and white images of murdered women that appear in Turkish newspapers daily.
The #ChallengeAccepted posts on Instagram are clearly well-intentioned and do spread the sentiment of female empowerment, which is an incredibly important and worthy message. However, the original aim of bringing to light the rising rates of gender-based violence in Turkey must not be lost on us. Instagram users with both large and small followings have the opportunity to educate their followers on this issue, even by including a simple explanation of the movement or a few facts in the caption of the post. By all means, post that selfie and send love to all the strong and supportive women in our lives. But, let the plight of Turkish women be heard.
