Luke Skywalker
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Chinese women are measuring the size of their knees with an iPhone 6.(Photo: Twitter screenshot)
BEIJING — Knee selfies?
Thousands of photos of women measuring how thin they are with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>iPhones and Chinese currency<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are circulating on the Internet,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>sparking a heated<span style="color: Red;">*</span>debate in China about<span style="color: Red;">*</span>beauty standards.
One of the most recent "challenges" encourage<span style="color: Red;">*</span>young women to wrap a 100-yuan<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bill<span style="color: Red;">*</span>around their wrist<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to prove the ends overlap.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Measuring just over 6 inches in length, the red bill is one of the larger gauges people<span style="color: Red;">*</span>have used.
Other “devil body challenges” include showing your legs are no wider than an iPhone 6<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at the knees or balancing five coins on your collar bone to show it protrudes. The name "devil body challenge"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>comes from Chinese mythology about<span style="color: Red;">*</span>evil spirits who change into beautiful, long-limbed sirens to seduce and entrap mortal men.
The trend of measuring one's body with objects has been applauded in some media as a sign of fitness. But Chinese<span style="color: Red;">*</span>activists, fashion editors and psychologists are condemning such contests for fostering<span style="color: Red;">*</span>unhealthy views of attractiveness.
“These abnormal standards could trigger depression or even eating disorders in women … these are not the correct values to be spreading,” said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Su Shu, lifestyle editor of Cosmopolitan magazine in China.
China, a country that struggled to feed itself only four decades ago, has recently begun recording a rising number of young people with bulimia and anorexia. At the same time demand for plastic surgery is also on the rise, increasing 200%<span style="color: Red;">*</span>every year by some counts. A common procedure is an eyelid lift to create a more Western appearance.
"It’s sad that they believe there is pressure to look a certain way,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said Luciana Rosu-Siezu, interim executive director at the Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Association in Windsor, Canada, the Windsor Star reported. "We are killing ourselves and pushing ourselves to those limits and for who? It’s important to just be yourself."
A wave of images on social media last month showed women and some men taking the 'A4 Waist Challenge' to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>prove<span style="color: Red;">*</span>their midriffs could be entirely obscured by an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>8 X<span style="color: Red;">*</span>11-inch sheet<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of paper.
"I have never felt thin enough. Like we always say, if a women can’t control her figure she can do nothing well,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Yan Yan, 28,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>who posted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>picture of her<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"A4 waist" online. "These challenges provide me with a stage to feel good."
Two of China’s main state-run newspapers came out in favor of the trend, referring to the "challenges"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as "fitness tests."
"An A4 waist size is neither a skeleton-thin look nor size zero. Instead, it is a healthy and attainable goal for some women. … In the current era, in which most people are overwhelmed and occupied by their work while fast food is flooding the market, staying skinny through exercise can demonstrate their diligence and willpower,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Global Times wrote<span style="color: Red;">*</span>last month.
An "A4 waist" is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a rough<span style="color: Red;">*</span>equivalent to a U.S. extra small in apparel. If you accomplish the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>iPhone 6 "challenge," it<span style="color: Red;">*</span>means both of your legs together are<span style="color: Red;">*</span>no wider than 6 inches at the knees.
Some critics<span style="color: Red;">*</span>responded on social media<span style="color: Red;">*</span>by holding university diplomas or a sheet of paper<span style="color: Red;">*</span>horizontally in front of their stomachs.
"These challenges simply make women ‘internalize’ the stereotype of woman … but we shouldn’t be looking to meet these standards, we should be looking to break them,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Li Tingting, a feminist.
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