Before I get any further in this article, let me start by saying this: I am all for promoting confidence and self-worth. I think that it is constantly being drained from people because of crazy unrealistic standards that are plastered all over social media and every magazine stand and billboard. However, with that being said, there is a wrong and right way to go about promoting these things.
I logged onto my Facebook account last week, and as I was scrolling through my news feed, the hashtag #DontJudgeMeChallenge, literally, covered my screen. I began to click on the links that accompanied said hashtag, and I was pretty confused as to what exactly was happening. Now, if you are one of the lucky three people on the face of the planet who has yet to see this, here's a brief rundown of what happens: A girl or guy starts off the video by filming themselves looking absolutely ridiculous. This typically includes something along the lines of a drawn on unibrow, fake acne, glasses, messed up hair, and other random marks drawn on their face. They look at the camera for a few seconds (usually accompanied by a painfully awkward facial expression) and then all of a sudden, they place their hand over the camera and when they remove it, they have completely "transformed" the way they look. And by transformed, I mean taken off all of the mess that was previously drawn on their face and styled their hair or done their makeup perfectly. If you're confused as to what I'm talking about, simply type in #DontJudgeMeChallenge on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook and you will soon understand.
Alright, so the point of this "challenge" is to supposedly encourage you to not judge other people, while promoting self confidence and beauty.
Well, here's the problem.. uh, problems: The obvious message you are attempting to portray here is to not judge other people, but you are doing the exact opposite.
Alright, I'm cool with that. Except for the fact that everything that you so "unfortunately" have drawn on your face in the first half of your video is something that someone else deals with on a daily basis. So just because you don't have acne, glasses, scars, or messed up teeth means that people who do, deserve to be judged? And since when did needing glasses make someone less of a person?
This is the absolute worst way to go about promoting self confidence and being comfortable in your own skin.
If you have to put down another group of people to make yourself feel more beautiful, you are searching for beauty in all of the wrong ways. First of all, just because you don't have acne, or glasses, or braces doesn't automatically give you a one way pass into flawless-land, and it most certainly doesn't mean that people with those things aren't beautiful. Your method of building self confidence is by putting other people down, and that is not okay.
If it is hurting someone else, are you really accomplishing anything at all? Yes, you might feel better about yourself, but you just completely degraded thousands of people by making fun of something about them. I understand that some people might have intended for this to be a joke, but it has completely backfired and turned into isolating and judging specific groups of people -- which is the opposite message this should be sending.
