After posting selfies behind an A4 paper held vertically to show they have thin waistlines, Chinese women are now posting photos of their legs covered by the iPhone 6 to show their lower limbs are also skinny.
The new but disturbing meme is the latest in a series of viral Weibo posts that Chinese women join as part of body trends in the country, noted Mashable. Before the A4 challenge, there was also the insert-the-pen-under-the-breast challenge to show that their mammary glands are firm.
By covering their knees with the Apple flagship, the iPhone 6, body image-conscious Chinese women are saying that their knees are also slim like their waistlines. The iPhone 6 is supposed to cover the two legs which are pressed together.
The photos became viral on Weibo, China’s most popular microblogging site. But like the two previous challenges, there are critics too of the iPhone 6 challenge.
Noting the body image trend one after the other, a Facebook user posted that “The world seems to be losing sense by the moment.” Moon Leighton also added on Facebook, “Whoever started these beauty trends certainly deserves a medal, something along the lines of ‘The Most Moronic Idea of the Year.’”
The memes have placed tremendous pressure on young women that their body proportions fit to the standard ideal beauty. Because of that pressure, iRead, a popular media source on Weibo, pointed out “One no longer has the courage to post to their friends if one does not have the right body lines.”
The Telegraph noted that it is unclear if the Chinese women used the larger iPhone 6 or its smaller version. The British daily hoped the trend would end soon because the Cupertino-based tech giant is releasing soon a smaller model, the iPhone SE.