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I have thought, had conversations and saved drafts of content I wanted to share with fellow women. A conversation for women. This follows the #ChallengeAccepted #BlackAndWhite photos on IG. The genesis of this hashtag as most of us have learnt originated in Turkey... a thread.
For most of us, it was sisterhood. To uplift each other, bring out the selflove within us. Now, we know better.
But this is not why I'm writing this thread. Before we knew the genesis of the challenge, women judged each other & now that we know we are castigating each other.
But this is not why I'm writing this thread. Before we knew the genesis of the challenge, women judged each other & now that we know we are castigating each other.
I'm open to have discussions, to be corrected, educated and empowered. It has always been my opinion that activism starts from conversations. Then we walk the talk. When women started posting B/W pics, most of us rushed to say that maybe we should do it another way...
And that therein lies the problem. We completely forgot that most of these women who uploaded the photos are actually doing something in the cause of #womenempowerment. Most of these women infact don't just put hashtags, they work to ensure that equity and equality prevails.
But this did not matter to most of us. Let's take it back to #IWD where we take photos & have hashtags to voice policies. Aren't policies formed from a need? A need that stems from a conversation? Which is part of advocacy? We are so hard on ourselves- we forget our successes.
Should we have done photos of us uplifting other women? Yes. Do we do photos, videos, interviews uplifting other women? Yes. Do we have women who go beyond hashtags and actually do the work of ensuring that women are not left behind? Yes.
We are so hard on ourselves-granted, we fight a lot for equity and equality. But a B/W photo of women self loving and enhancing sisterhood made us forget all the strides we have made as a gender. Let's not give the 'women are their own worst enemy' a platform.
Who is going to empower us other than ourselves? There are different approaches to #womenempowerment ... some more action oriented others conversational. Activism has different components. Can we show more compassion to our fellow women as we correct them?
If our very first instinct is to criticise our fellow women, then we have a long way to go.
