Snapchat does it again: Its Women's Day filter paying tribute to Marie Cure borders on insensitivity

Snapchat is all the rage despite Facebook working overtime on copying its functionality in WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram. The major thing working for the company is the filters that the app introduces from time to time ranging from general filters to filters celebrating a specific event. The company recently added three new filters of Marie Curie, Rosa Parks and Frida Kahlo to celebrate the International Women’s Day.

It was all good and cool as an intent for Snapchat users to use the new filters to wish International Women’s Day to anyone on their contact list. But there was a major problem that the company did not address. The Marie Curie filter added smoky eye makeup along with an eyeliner to make eyelashes look fluttery and long along with the chemical flasks and AR chemical symbols as reported by The Verge .

This was not enough and the Frida Kahlo filter lightens the skin and eyes of the users along with red lipstick, floral headdress and braids along with the unibrow as reported by The Guardian .

While it was thoughtful to have filters paying tribute to prominent women personalities such as scientist and double Nobel prize winner Marie Curie, painter Frida Kahlo, and American civil rights activist Rosa Parks, what users found offensive were the attempts to overly beautify and sexualise the filters. For instance, the Marie Curie filter had maskara and modern-day makeup, which did not go down well with a lot of users. Marie Curie’s archival portraits do not show her in any such makeup, and that the filter highlighted this while just having a set of beakers in the foreground, completely missing out on her massive achievements. In effect defeating the purpose of celebrating International Women’s Day. Even with Frida Kahlo filter, there was an element of skin lightening involved.

Filters with cosmetic makeup or brightened skin are part of Snapchat’s arsenal of AR filters. While they may seem fine if you are just using them while sharing snaps with your friends, the tables turn when you try to apply them while paying tribute to renowned women on the occassion of International Women’s Day.

The unfortunate part is that this is not the first time that Snapchat has been the centre of controversy for the filters that come with the app.

The company had faced flak in the past when it introduced the Bob Marley filter which imposed or face swapped the Snapchat user’s face with that of Bob Marley. The problem with the filter was the sheer racial insensitivity that came with the filter. The company was also panned for its decision of introduce another filter, this time ‘yellowface’ filter which made people’s face look like racist Asian caricatures.

The amazing thing here is that the company has repeated this for the third time in recent history.

One thing that The Verge pointed out is that the company has only one female on its board of directors so this filter may be because of the lack of female insight at this ‘idea’.