00:00:00.000welcome to culture club my name is maggie and i'm jasmine and we're two 20-something media
00:00:17.400slashies talking about current affairs pop culture the internet and our lives thank you
00:00:24.040for listening to us episode two so exciting so exciting we only launched a few days ago
00:00:29.900but we're on a roll here and I think we should also clarify what a slashy is a media slashy I
00:00:36.100got a couple questions so how do we define this so what we think a media slashy is is someone who
00:00:44.660wears lots of hats a jack of all trades for example I'm a journalist a feature writer a
00:00:51.020copywriter now a podcaster a content creator sometimes I think you're more of a slashy than
00:00:57.340i am yeah there's just it's a never-ending list hey we also you use the term multi-hyphenates
00:01:03.360which i also like so yeah i'd say i'm like a writer content creator occasional photographer
00:01:09.660copywriter social media coordinator just whatever you just give yourself your own name like everybody
00:01:17.120calls themselves an entrepreneur anyway so this just adds to it yeah exactly so hopefully that
00:01:24.120clues up for anyone who wasn't sure. So this week, we're going to be talking about a challenge we've
00:01:30.240been seeing around the internet. But before that, I really want to acknowledge that the Wonduri,0.99
00:01:34.980Turrbal and Boon Wurrung people are the traditional custodians of the land on which we live, create
00:01:39.920and work. We respect elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty was
00:01:45.880never seeded. So Mags what have you been up to this week? Well thanks for asking because yesterday
00:01:55.940it was announced that Victorians are in stage four of lockdown for another six weeks which means
00:02:03.760you know we've got like an 8 p.m curfew we can't leave the house within a five kilometer radius
00:02:08.880and all that jazz and to be honest I was just thinking you were so kind and like sent me a
00:02:13.940message and was like hey how are you going and I was like that's so so nice of you to check in and
00:02:18.540originally I was like oh physically I am not affected because I have just been staying home
00:02:23.700and taking short walks every day sticking by the law abiding by the law but and then it hit me
00:02:30.000afterwards it's mentally it's quite a draining and like that's how I feel just like a loud sigh
00:02:37.880yeah definitely um it's just daunting but yeah yeah for sure I think psychologically just knowing
00:02:45.980that there's an extra stage added on there's more restrictions a lot of the people I've been
00:02:49.820speaking to have been really gracious about it and if they said they're saying I'm not as worse
00:02:54.960affected um my life hasn't changed that much but it's still a really tough time to go through
00:03:03.120you guys are all doing so well I was watching the press conference yesterday and just hearing
00:03:07.660the state of disaster like being declared a state of just that's crazy i know a lot of our listeners
00:03:12.880are also in melbourne so we're sending love to everyone who's like doing it tough and um we'll
00:03:19.380add some helpline numbers into our show notes this week for anyone who needs it but just make
00:03:24.200sure you're talking to friends trying to keep a routine as much as possible and just trying to
00:03:28.480get through hopefully we can also provide a bit of a distraction today maybe you're on your hourly
00:03:33.480walk or something. Oh, yes. Hello, outside world. How about you, Jazz? How about you in Brisbane?
00:03:40.620How have you been going? Yeah, I've been really well. I also feel like I should clarify why I'm
00:03:46.560in Brisbane because I also got a few messages last week about people were like, oh, you live in
00:03:51.960Brisbane. And I'm like, incidentally, I live in Brisbane. So I was in Melbourne for the first
00:03:57.560lockdown. And then the middle of June, I thought that lockdown was coming to an end. So I was like,
00:04:03.840I'm going to go visit my parents. I was meant to visit in March, but that got cancelled. So I
00:04:08.220thought I'll go to the Sunshine State, get some warmth, escape Melbourne winter. I'll be up for
00:04:13.660like a month, six weeks max. And within five days of me being here was when they said every Victorian
00:04:19.920has to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel. And then a couple of days after that was when all
00:04:25.060Victorians were banned. So now I've moved to Brisbane, basically, which I'm really grateful.
00:04:31.480I'm grateful to be here because obviously it's a lot safer. I'm with my family. I'm warm. That's
00:04:37.400the story as well. I don't normally live in Brisbane, but I'm just up here. I haven't been
00:04:43.780doing that much this week. I feel like that releasing the podcast took up a lot of time
00:04:48.460um in a good way my screen time went up 25 this week because I was reading everyone's messages
00:04:55.500and thank you so much to everyone for all of your support and kind words like I know we've said it
00:05:00.140a few times now on Instagram but we're literally blown away by how kind everyone has been so thank
00:05:05.600you so much for all the messages every time we get a new message I feel like Jazz and I just like
00:05:10.520send it to each other screenshot and be like look what we got said it honestly blows our minds so
00:05:15.760we're so appreciative of every single person who's, you know, dropped us a line or a follow
00:05:21.180or something. One thing I did notice spending a lot of time on the internet last week was obviously
00:05:28.100challenge accepted. When was the first time that you heard about this trend? Honestly,
00:05:37.460I got a couple of the nominations in my inbox and I feel like I've seen them before in the past.
00:05:44.020like you know we've had a push-up trend I just send a nice thank you for thinking of me I'm not
00:05:49.240gonna do that because I do not do push-ups um and this was similar and I was quite how do I say
00:05:54.620when I received the messages I was really thankful that someone was thinking about me but I was like
00:06:00.040oh not one of these things again and I didn't really pay it too much attention honestly in
00:06:06.180terms of who I follow I didn't see an overwhelming flight of black and white selfies on my feed
00:06:10.600did you no I didn't really um I got tagged in it by my auntie and she's not normally one to
00:06:18.200buy into I guess into these trends so I actually did post something on my story I posted a picture
00:06:24.960of myself and three friends in a group photo in black and white but I didn't tag anything like
00:06:29.760I just tagged my aunt who um had tagged me and the three friends who were in the picture but I
00:06:34.560wasn't kind of like passing it on because it definitely did become a bit of a chain mail
00:06:39.360experience kind of like back in the day when you'd have email chain letters in like primary
00:06:44.900school or something the premise of challenge accepted was originally at least the way it
00:06:49.840became popular with celebrities and women posting black and white selfies and hashtagging challenge
00:06:55.400accepted and hashtag women supporting women's or girls supporting girls it also usually consisted
00:07:01.180of a caption relating to feminism or expressing awe of women or friendship that's kind of what
00:07:06.720I saw as well um there were heaps of celebrities that took part I don't follow many so I did a0.86
00:07:12.320google celebrities like Jennifer Aniston Christina Aguilera Vanessa Hudgens okay you're gonna kill
00:07:18.940me Florence Pugh how do you say it Florence Pugh I think you I've only damn it I knew it
00:07:27.780she's my favorite yeah I'm pretty sure you're right anyway yeah and so I actually saw I saw
00:07:36.040like maybe two things about women supporting women didn't think much of it but then I followed
00:07:40.740a lot of activists and like quite I guess progressive accounts and that's when I found
00:07:46.120out that apparently it started in Turkey due to the femicide bounce against women and it kind of
00:07:55.220felt like the internet was really divided by it so I was like oh that's that's interesting I learned
00:07:59.900more about what was going on in Turkey I don't know about you but before the last few days I
00:08:05.100actually hadn't heard of this. So we thought we'd just, you know, explain a little bit more about
00:08:09.220what's going on. So The Guardian has reported that at least 474 women were killed in Turkey last year
00:08:16.640and femicide, violence against women and the so-called honour killings are deeply rooted
00:08:22.560issues in Turkey. The issue came to a head last week when the country was rocked by the brutal
00:08:28.820killing of Pinar Gultikin, a 27-year-old student who was allegedly killed by an ex-boyfriend.
00:08:35.100Apparently, more than 2,900 women have been murdered by their husbands, boyfriends, relatives or others in Turkey since 2010.
00:08:43.780Another thing that users on Instagram were drawing attention to is that Turkey might be considering its withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention.
00:08:52.000So the original name of this is the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.
00:09:00.280This convention seeks to protect women from all forms of violence and eliminate gender-based
00:09:05.240discrimination. So the fact that, you know, Turkish is considering pulling out of it is
00:09:10.120really frightening for a lot of Turkish women who have said that online.
00:09:15.960According to The Guardian, at least 474 women were killed in Turkey last year,
00:09:21.700and that report is the highest rate in a decade. So it's very worrying. Even if
00:09:28.360the challenge accepted didn't originate from this issue it's amazing that um it has raised awareness
00:09:35.600i feel like maybe i'm not reading widely enough but i did not hear about what turkish women are
00:09:41.920facing until last week until this instagram challenge so yeah whatever the reason that
00:09:48.720the challenge went viral it's kind of become a good thing in that more people around the world
00:09:54.700are learning more yeah I would also add to that though like I'm getting my information from
00:10:01.840informative carousel posts and Instagram posts more so than just black and white selfies I
00:10:08.860understand you know that's a that's caused a chain reaction but I also want to you know not
00:10:14.440minimize importance of good journalism and like informative and informative sources in this matter0.99
00:10:20.860as well yeah for sure I feel like um with Instagram accounts like shit you should care about0.68
00:10:27.480um that's just one off to my head but they're really good at summarizing news but then if0.92
00:10:33.780everyone starts just like summarizing news really quickly for their Instagram things can get lost in
00:10:40.180translation things aren't fact-checked and that's when you have fake news running around our social
00:10:46.040media accounts I think we should take everything we see on social media not with a grain of salt
00:10:52.460but just taking a step back and thinking okay where is this source from where are these stats
00:10:57.120coming from rather than just blindly re-gramming things to suit your own narrative that can be
00:11:03.440really dangerous after the posts were made by the celebrities and I started seeing a lot of
00:11:11.080activists posting about the femicides in Turkey a thread by this account called Beezle Boobs went
00:11:19.640viral and that was explaining the origin of the women supporting women hashtag said the black and
00:11:28.180white photo challenge started as a way for women to raise their voice to stand in solidarity with
00:11:33.600the women we have lost to show that one day it could be their picture that is plastered across
00:11:38.460news outlets with a black and white filter on top. It's quite morbid, isn't it, actually? So
00:11:44.480something that we just thought was posting a pretty picture of yourself was trying to represent
00:11:49.880the photos of, you know, women who have passed. Maggie and I were seeing a lot of posts about this
00:11:56.880Turkish origin, which is really important because it was highlighting a very serious issue that
00:12:02.400women in Turkey are facing right now. But then I came across a New York Times report by Taylor
00:12:10.240Lorenz, who is a technology reporter, and she debunked the origins of the trend. Taylor reposted
00:12:18.980parts of her article to her Instagram feed and story. So I'm just going to read out a little
00:12:23.640snippet of that. So she shared the post that Jazz just read, and this is what she added to it.
00:12:29.580This post is false. Turkish women were not the origin of this challenge. The challenge has been
00:12:35.180around since 2016 in various forms. That is just one recent manifestation of it. Instagram and
00:12:42.120Facebook investigated the origin of the challenge accepted hashtag in Turkey after I asked for
00:12:47.780comment and for them to look into this. And this is what Facebook said. While we found black and
00:12:54.160white posts relating to women's rights, it doesn't appear related to the more recent hashtag challenge
00:12:59.300accepted resurgence. That was really interesting as well, because apparently from our and Taylor's
00:13:06.120investigation, it has been used in various forms since 2016. So I read that it was the black and
00:13:12.880white selfie model of challenges have been used for cancer awareness, for empowering women when
00:13:20.340Trump was first elected in 2016. And also last week when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the speech
00:13:28.060against derogatory remarks made by the Republican Senator Ted Yoho. So it got really heated on
00:13:36.580Instagram didn't it? It was like such a whirlwind couple of days. I'd love to hear what your
00:13:45.380thoughts of the whole thing was really. To be honest I think especially because we come from
00:13:51.820journalistic backgrounds. I admire integrity and truth and honesty, right? I think that is crucial
00:13:59.640to any movement and, you know, fake news or even like little white lies spread so easily on social
00:14:06.420media. And if I was going to be partaking in a challenge or saying anything, I like doing my
00:14:13.060research, right? So first and foremost, I feel like there's a lot of backlash in the New York
00:14:18.100Times article, which we'll get into later about, you know, who cares what the origins are if it's
00:14:23.880helping, which we'll talk about later. But, you know, I admire that article and I'm like, okay,
00:14:28.680thank you. Like I wanted to know that. What about you? Yeah, I feel the same way. I feel like I came
00:14:35.040across the challenge quite late and within 12 to 24 hours of me first finding out about it was when
00:14:41.760all of the news about the origins were coming out. When I saw the New York Times article,
00:14:47.160It was just nice to see from like a reputed source rather than just like a random Instagrammer