THE DOWN'S SYNDROME FILTER

And how can we hold creators accountable?

This is an unplanned piece! Every once in a while you stumble across something that makes you feel livid and this is such a thing.

As far as I can piece things together, Snapchat recently introduced a Down’s Syndrome filter.

For people born in the Jurassic Age (like me): Snapchat is an app that be downloaded on a smartphone. It allows you to send pictures or videos, called "Snaps," to friends. These “Snaps” vanish once they've been viewed. The platform also offers a Chat function, similar to instant messaging services like WhatsApp or Messenger.

First of all, speaking from a design point of view, the fact that something can be done, doesn’t mean you should do it or make it! Who comes up with such an idea and then not only executes it, but convinces a popular app (among young people) to actually install it?

I think that it is in the poorest possible taste to use a filter to check what you might look like if you had a disability or genetic disorder (also called trisomy 21, because it is caused by the presence of all, or part of chromosome 21).

I am not remotely amused by the thought of young people entertaining themselves (and their friends) by running this filter on on pictures of themselves. That is disgraceful, and surely their parents were not watching. But, our modern world being what it is, the story doesn’t stop there!

Competition is brisk on the Only Fans site and many young women are constantly looking for something that will help them go viral. That is all that matters now: algorithms and views.

For those of you living under a rock: OnlyFans is a paid online subscription service based in my hometown: London, UK. The site is very popular with sex workers. It has inspired quite a lot of people (read young women) to make a living from creating and sharing personalised porn, in the “safety” of their own bedroom, without physical contact.

Apparently, one Only Fans model recently came up with the idea of taking moving video footage of herself and and then plastering the Down’s Syndrome filter on her face (using Snapchat). The resulting footage was then uploaded on the Only Fans site, to attract views and make money.

This footage looks extremely weird because girls with Down’s do generally not have the “barbie body shape” of most OF models. Not just that, but the filter falters very briefly here and there, so viewers get a tiny (ghostly) glimpse of the “real” face of this person.

Other people have hopped on the bandwagon as well. There is footage of hot girls (with bodies that probably required cosmetic surgery to achieve) wearing the filter twerking and captions along the lines of: “Does Down’s mean I am not pretty?”

The obvious thing then happens: dodgy men leave super lewd commentary and dodgy invites in the comment section (and those views and comments bump the video up the ratings, courtesy of our amoral algorithms). There are also Instagram pages for such “girls” (probably creeps plastering this filter on pictures and videos of the faces and bodies of women who are not even aware of their footage being used).

Now, aside from this filter existing at all, and aside from people not realising that this phenomenon is in the poorest possible taste (and should be reported and boycotted), we now have the sexualization and fetishization of vulnerable young girls with Trisomy 21.

Of course people with Down’s can partner up and enjoy their intimate life, but do we really want to plant this idea in the heads of perverts looking for a thrill or new kink? Selling them the notions that girls with Down’s (a visible and obvious disability) are “up for it” or “actively looking for it”?

Here I am thinking of all the parents who raise their dearly beloved children with trisomy 21 to be as confident and independent as possible (despite generally being advised, by medical professionals, at the 12 week scan, to opt for a termination). Is anyone, messing around with this filter, thinking of the long-term impact of young girls with Down’s and the parents working 24/7 to keep them safe and happy, finding just the right balance between supervision and independence?

How can we hold creators accountable for the things they unleash in the world, Frankenstein-style? What if (God forbid) sexual assaults happen because of this trend?

I have no desire to promote this stuff in any way, but I here is just one (fairly sober) video for you to see what I mean: VIDEO.

Oh, and the next trend seems to be a filter allowing people to look like they are amputees. I am out of words for today…

I try (but sometimes fail) to get out at least one essay a week (sometimes more), due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest Witch

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022.

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda has presented her work on both The Shift Network and Sounds True. She appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda currently has a handbook for rune magicians (about the runes of the Elder Futhark) in production (it will be published by Moon Books in 2026). She is now working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology. Imelda runs an on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings, where all classes she teaches remain available as recordings, which can be watched any time.

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Online School: https://pregnant-hag-teachings.teachable.com/courses/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/