Page 48 - Q1 2021

FEATURE

SILHOUETTE

CHALLENGE –

Uplifting or Downgrading

women? By Nonso Nduanya

“I’m fully in support of it,” said a female colleague Petapixel.com described how to join the challenge:
I asked of her views on the #SilhouetteChallenge, participants, mostly women, first film themselves
a highly controversial social media challenge that fully clothed, to a remix of Paul Anka’s classic
trended earlier this year, “but I don’t think I can do song “Put Your Head on My Shoulder.” The video
it…,” she said. then cuts into a red filtered view of the person’s
silhouette dancing and showing off the body shape.
Body shaming has been a thing for a while with Participants generally dance in various states of
lots of new movements encouraging love for nudeness, believing that the TikTok red filter that
“imperfections” in the body structure and features, creates the silhouette will protect their privacy.
springing to life all over the world. The idea behind
the #SilhouetteChallenge was for people, especially A challenge like this that encourages people to
women, irrespective of size or shape, to flaunt their post videos of themselves in the nude is bound to
body frames and receive support and admiration go south and it wasn’t long before reports started
from others on social media. surfacing that there were video editing techniques
people could use to actually remove the red Tik
What was supposed to be a body-positivity Tok filter that supposedly protects the participants’
movement, aimed at empowering women privacy, thus revealing their full or partial nudeness
to celebrate their bodies and sensuality, the previously masked in the already shared videos. It
#SilhouetteChallenge, snowballed from yet another wasn’t long also
Tiktok challenge into a viral social media sensation
with millions of participants all over the world. Some before the hashtag became a ‘pornfest’ with all
in support, others outrightly condemning it. sorts of obscenities making their way into the social
feeds.
Previously, the #BussItChallenge had gone viral
with the intriguing transformation of women (and Women empowerment has been one of the most
men) from mundane to full-glam modes in their debated topics of the 21st century. This challenge
best outfits. The #SilhouetteChallenge, quite the may have been initially birthed as another way to
opposite, starts with the participant fully dressed empower women to rise above the psychological
then transitions into a stripped-down mode subjugation of body-shaming and the attendant
focused on the silhouetted bare body-shape of the low self-worth, which are genuine and serious
participant. social issues among women today, however it

48 | The Lion King | Jan - Mar 2021