The past couple of days has seen women all around the world take to Instagram to participate in the growing social media challenge, known as the Black and White Challenge.
The campaign, which requires women to post black and white photos of themselves with the caption, #ChallengeAccepted has grown to be known for its women empowerment message. However, this is not the truth behind it. Multiple social media users including well known celebs such as Pearl Thusi have taken the time to clarify on the actual origin of the challenge in order to ensure that women partake with understanding and therefore more meaning.
In posting her black and white photo, Pearl encouraged her followers to swipe left in order to educate themselves on what actually started the movement. Among such Instagram users to do this is author, behavioral scientist as well as anti-racism educator, Dr Pragya Agarwal. In contributing to the challenge, Agarwal went on to caption her black and white photo with a detailed explanation of how the movement started.
“Black and white selfies. It isn’t just a game of hot or not. Or an exercise in vanity. It is not just a mindless challenge that women are undertaking to post their sexiest snaps. These are some of the criticisms that this #challenge has faced. It is a very gesture of defiance in support of the Turkish Women (Turkey has one of the highest femicide rate), in support of Pinar Gultekin who was killed in the most violent manner, in support of every woman who has felt threatened and unsafe.”
With South Africa also battling in the fight against gender based violence, it is important to spread the correct message behind the black and white challenge so as to ensure that the real issue at hand gets addressed.
