Summary

The article discusses the #BreakStereotypes movement on Instagram, where women are sharing powerful images with text snippets to challenge and address commonly held stereotypes against women.

Abstract

The #BreakStereotypes movement started on Instagram as a way for women to share their accomplishments and celebrate their true selves. The movement was inspired by an image of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) shared by the account fbeinghumbleldn, which aimed to amplify and celebrate AOC's powerful speech after Republican's sexist remarks. The movement has since gained momentum with hundreds of women participating, sharing images and stories to break down stereotypes and inspire one another.

Opinions

The #BreakStereotypes movement is a positive and empowering experience for women, as it allows them to celebrate their accomplishments and feel comfortable with their whole selves.
The movement reminds women of the importance of speaking up and talking about their wins, as it fuels the stereotype that women are not comfortable doing so.
The movement is a continuation of the #IlooklikeanEngineer campaign from 2015, which challenged stereotypes about what an engineer looks like.
The movement has helped to break down many commonly held stereotypes against women, such as the idea that women are too pretty to be smart or that they don't look like engineers.
The movement encourages women to create their own visuals for the movement using Instagram stories or other tools, and has resulted in a curation of inspirational visuals with the #breakstereotypes tag.
The movement is gaining momentum and is inspiring more and more women to participate and share their stories.
The movement is a reminder that women can be both accomplished and true to themselves, and that they should be proud of their accomplishments.

Explained: #BreakStereotypes Challenge on Social Media

Breaking stereotypes one picture at a time

Women are posting powerful images with text snippets on Instagram tagged #BreakStereotypes to address commonly held stereotypes against women and inspire one another. It’s not really a challenge — it’s a movement.

Women participating in Breaking Stereotype Movement. Pictures belong to (left to right): @sundaskhalid, @z.ba68, 8@lindahaviv, @herhelloworld @marynguyenco

Key Facts

The movement originally started with fbeinghumbleldn account on Instagram that advocates self promotion, founded by Stefanie Sword-William, where it shared below picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). The picture aimed to amplify and celebrate AOC’s powerful speech after Republican’s sexist remarks.

This was followed by Ankita Joshi who along with her friends shared a series of pictures around July 27th 2020. The initial photo by Ankita was later promoted by her friend Paulina Castrellon who provided additional content and instructions on the movement (challenge).

Women are often discouraged to talk about their accomplishments. They get called “arrogant” or not humble when they do speak up. — Ankita Joshi.

Since then hundreds of women have participated in this movement with #BreakingStereotypes #SheCanDoBoth — and the movement continues to gain momentum.

Ankita J’s original post on July 27th 2020. Left: Ankita J Right: instructions by Paulina Castrellon

Stereotypes women face

She is too pretty to be smart.
You are too pretty to know math and science.
She is model so she must be dumb.
You don’t look like an engineer. Remember the 2015 campaign #IlooklikeanEngineer.
Women have it easy because men take care of them.
and many more…

Women celebrating their accomplishments

Another reason to love this movement is that it’s leading women to celebrate their accomplishments and their true self. What not to love about it? Many times, we struggle to speak up and talk about our wins and celebrate them, partially due to gender modesty norms and imposter syndrome, which not only holds them back from speaking up and fuels the stereotype.

This movement specifically reminded me of IAmRemarkable which is an initiative by Google to empower women and underrepresented groups to celebrate their accomplishment at workplace and beyond.

As a facilitator of IAmRemarkable workshop, I see the value this movement is providing for women. It’s making them feel comfortable with their accomplishments along with their whole self. It’s an empowering experience for everyone involved. If you haven’t participated in this movement yet, I encourage you to do so.

How to create the visual for #BreakingStereotypes movement in under 5 minutes

You can use any tool but I personally find creation in Instagram stories easy.

select an image you want to use
open Instagram story camera
load your image
write keyword you want to include, one at a time.

Still not following? Watch this 30 second video to see how.

Curation of inspirational visuals with #breaksteretypes tag

If you want your to be included, leave a message here on Medium or contact me (@sundaskhalidd) on Instagram with your picture.

Contributors: nikkithenewyorker, dasani_decoded, geekfireflower, kusharudaoraaa, victorious_07, j_saraaustin, upasnagautam, sithtaphone, htalat26 and many more.

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