Over the last few days, a campaign has been doing rounds on our Instagram feeds which purports to be about women supporting each other by posting a black and white picture of themselves on their feed. Shared along with the hashtag #ChallengeAccepted, several international celebrities such as Vanessa Bryant, Kerry Washinton, Eva Longoria, Ellen Pompeo, Khloe Kardashian and Indian celebrities including Shilpa Shetty, Karishma Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Samantha Akkineni, among many others have taken part in the social media campaign, making it a viral trend across the world.
But what is the challenge really about?
As reported by several international publications, a representative from Instagram have said that the earliest post that surfaced as part of the current cycle of the challenge was posted a week and a half ago by the Brazilian journalist Ana Paula Padrão.
While there are no confirmed reports on how the campaign began, several reports suggest that the trend broke soon after US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke up against the behaviour of fellow representative Ted Yoho, who made sexist remarks against her. Alexandria’s speech in the House where she spoke up of his behaviour had gone viral across platforms and is seen as one reason that may have sparked this campaign.
Another incident that seemed to have inspired the trend is the murder of 27-year-old Turkish woman by her ex-boyfriend, which eventually sparked outrage in Turkey. The protest seem to have brought into picture the country's alarming rate of femicide and the government's attempts to dilute the laws that protect the women from honour killings.
While a section of people has come up with criticism, questioning the effectiveness of the trend, many are standing in favour as they believe that the premise of the #challengeaccepted campaign is to promote female empowerment.