TikTok Challenges
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The Don't Rush Challenge
Black women are doing this coronavirus challenge in style. Groups of friends make mini videos of themselves individually dancing with a make up brush, before virtually 'passing it on' to the next person.
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The Argument
In the “Don’t Rush Challenge,” a group of people show off different makeup and outfits in short videos that they each record separately. In each recording, the person starts off in what they would wear at home with no makeup on. In the original iterations of the challenge, the person would then pick up a makeup brush and raise it up to the camera lens, covering the lens completely. In some versions of the challenge, people have used things other than makeup brushes to obscure the camera, such as pilots using their headsets. Off screen, the person gets into a more formal or otherwise more “dressed up” outfit. The video resumes with the person bringing the makeup brush back from the screen and revealing their new outfit. The person then tosses the makeup brush offscreen, and the video transitions to a new person in their homewear. The new person grabs a makeup brush from their home offscreen, matching up the location with where the last person threw their makeup brush offscreen, so that it looks like the last person is passing the brush off to the next one. The challenge is called the “Don’t Rush Challenge” because the videos use the song “Don’t Rush” by Young T & Bugsey.
This challenge was started by one 20-year-old student named Toluwalase Asolo. Her original video of the challenge has over two million views. Asolo has said that her intention for the challenge was “to empower and encourage women to embrace their beauty with and without makeup.” Additionally, as the original video was all Black women, Asolo has said that the challenge is a celebration of diversity and pride. This fantastic message has contributed to the challenge's success.[1]
The “Don’t Rush Challenge” has been featured on websites such as Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Bustle, Fox News, and Mashable. Some celebrities have participated in this challenge, such as Skai Jackson, Marsai Martin, Storm Reid, and the cast of Orange is the New Black. [2] This challenge has been a massive success on social media, especially TikTok. This challenge is the most successful because it encourages diversity and body positivity and because it is entertaining and light-hearted. It’s also a nice opportunity for people to show off outfits and makeup looks that they haven’t been able to wear recently due to quarantine.
Counter arguments
Though this challenge has had some media coverage, it has had significantly less celebrity participation than other challenges, such as the Flip the Switch Challenge. This has contributed to the challenge being less popular than some other challenges. This challenge also hasn't really spread to other social media platforms, likely because TikTok's app functions are what makes it so easy to film the video for the Don't Rush Challenge. There are few posts on Twitter or Facebook about this challenge, whereas other challenges have gotten buzz across multiple social media apps. One might also argue that this is not a true challenge since it isn't difficult to complete, like the Handstand T-Shirt Challenge or the Savage Challenge. Though this challenge does require some teamwork and cooperation, it doesn't involve any skills like doing a handstand or learning a dance. Thus, one might say that since this is so easy to accomplish and doesn't require specialized skills, it is not really a challenge. If popularity, celebrity participation, social media coverage, and difficulty/skill-learning contribute to a challenge's success, then this is not the most successful social media challenge.