Many of you have probably seen a certain video that shows a young person with acnes dots and a uni-brow drawn on their face. While a pop ballad plays in the background, this person makes a spectacle of covering the camera and then revealing to the world that they are in fact not covered in acne and have perfectly, “fleeked” eyebrows. They are taking part in the “#DontJudgeChallenge.”
What started out as a social media campaign to stop body shaming has quickly spiraled down into something quite the opposite. Users on social media outlets such as Instagram, Vine, and Facebook have complained that those who have participated and contributed to the challenge have actually brought forth the insecurities that people face everyday. Insecurities such as acne, freckles, chipped teeth, and unibrows are spoofed into a short video, rather than letting society know it's ok to have these things, they reveal a face that looks flawless and caked in makeup. The idea of beauty has once again, been counteracted with this simple trend even if its intention was to eliminate the idea of perfection.
I would like to think the creators of this trend had good intentions and that it's not their fault that the youths of our generation decided to take this into a new, more narcissistic direction. However, I can’t help but feel ashamed for the trend. Don’t get me wrong, makeup is great and it has many great uses, but to promote that as a sense of perfection and basically brand it as an essential tool for confidence is just fake and wrong. There is nothing more natural as acne, freckles, and unibrows, even beautiful. To parody such things is just wrong and even heartbreaking in a society that is trying to promote a campaign of anti-body shaming. It almost degrades the movement of anti-body shaming through this contradiction.
This trend was created in order to promote anti-body shaming, but it is doing the exact opposite. I believe the best way to promote self confidence is to show ourselves in our most natural and humble state, something the “#DontJudgeChallenge” can learn to do.
