This week, women in surgery went viral on social media. After the New Yorker published their April 3 animated cover featuring an illustration of four women in an OR, dubbed “Operating Theatre” by the French artist Malika Favre, women surgeons all over the world took to Twitter and Instagram to recreate the photo using the hashtag, #NYerORCoverChallenge.
#NYerORCoverChallenge #ILookLikeASurgeon Where's your @NewYorker cover??? Step up! @WomenSurgeons @womeninsurgery pic.twitter.com/DzazM103XG
— Susan Pitt (@susieQP8) April 6, 2017
The New Yorker cover and the accompanying hashtag sought to highlight the work and presence of women in surgery after the success of the #ILookLikeaSurgeon hashtag, a recent online movement encouraging women, people of color and other diverse groups in the male-dominated profession of surgery to stand up and be visible. Many women who have recreated the photos for the #NYerORCoverChallenge have also included the #ILookLikeaSurgeon hashtag in their online posts to show solidarity with the broader movement.
If you’d like to participate in the #NYerORCoverChallenge or the #ILookLikeaSurgeon movement, take a photo of a group of our female surgeons or surgical residents in the style of the April 3 cover of the New Yorker and post it on Twitter using the aforementioned hashtags. If you want a retweet from @UABSurgery, be sure to mention us in your post. If you aren’t active on Twitter, you can still participate by sending us your photo via surgcomm@uabmc.edu, and we’ll post it to our @UABSurgery Twitter account.
Men who have chosen to take part in the #NYerORCoverChallenge or the #ILookLikeaSurgeon movement on Twitter have used the platform to highlight the need for men in surgery to support their female peers using the hashtag #HeForShe. HeForShe is a global movement for gender equality created by UN Women, a United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.
For more information on the #NYerORCoverChallenge and the #ILookLikeaSurgeon movement, check out this overview from Buzzfeed or this day-two story from the New Yorker.
