First it was stacking coins in your collar boneto show how thin and gaunt you are, then putting pencils under your boobs, now women in China are holding up sheets of A4 paper to demonstrate how tiny their waists are. The idea being that if your waist is smaller than the paper, you win. Nobody can clarify what that is. A big sandwich?
It began in February, with women sharing photos of their less-than-eight-inches all over Chinese social media site Weibo, and since then it's snowballed with more and more people getting involved.
Now the hashtag #A4Waist is trending and has spread to other parts of Asia too, with photos like this littering people's news feeds:
That last one is a personal fave - implying you only deserve a scoop of ice cream if your waist is smaller than a piece of paper. Gah. Obviously for some small-boned, lithe individuals, an A4 waist is an achievable, healthy goal. But for a lot of women, a waist that's smaller than a piece of paper would signify a severely low BMI and a hospital trip so maybe it's a good idea to stop this trend before it gets to the UK the only way we know how: taking the piss out of it.
Yeah, take that A4 waist challenge, I'm off for a Chipotle. Join me, using the hashtag #AWaist. Because every body shape has a waist and, if you're healthy and happy, we shouldn't give a flying fuck how big it is.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.