Over the past few days, Instagram has been flooded with photos of women in monochrome images gushing over themselves and passing the baton to other women to do same as well. The photographs often have the women looking serious and taken from flattering angles with captions that read “ women supporting women.”

The key thing about this trend is that ‘women are supporting and empowering women’ with the #ChallengeAccepted and asking their friends to do the same – It is simple, lady A takes a photo, writes all the kind words about being a woman, tags lady B and C, and asks them to do the same.

So far, more than 3 million photos have been uploaded with the #ChallengeAccepted hashtag and a few more have appeared without the hashtags, theses ones didn’t get the memo.

A representative from Instagram said that the earliest post the company could surface for this current cycle of the challenge was posted a week and a half ago by the Brazilian journalist Ana Paula Padrão.

This is not the first time and certainly won’t be the last that Instagram users will be leveraging on black-and-white selfies and portraits in support of an ambiguous cause. In 2016, a similar trend sparked on Instagram where monochrome photos were used to spread positivity and cancer awareness with the same hashtag- #ChallengeAccepted.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKJAdNFROm/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDJY_LNs9yn/

In Nigeria, there has been an everlasting debate on the need for Nigerian women to support each other, and this trend, at a time like this where certain discussions concerning women are ignored, is veering away from that direction.

With no actual advocacy for any cause, women just seem to be sharing good words about themselves and asking other women to do the same. While topics surrounding sexual abuse, rape, gender-based violence and a host of other injustices targeted at women, is ignored in this challenge, the #ChallengeAccepted however, seems to be tiptoeing around the general call for ‘women supporting women’

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDJnFznMvfz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Michael Isaac

Michael is a dynamic writer who is still exploring the nuances of life and being human. When I’m not writing, I’m out with friends or spending nice time alone watching movies or TV Shows.
Michael is available on Twitter and Instagram @TheMichaelFaya