Jos-Daily: Worrying New Craze - Women are trying to make their waists smaller than a piece of paper

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Worrying New Craze - Women are trying to make their waists smaller than a piece of paper

**Latest body trend from China involves women comparing the their waist measurements to an upright piece of A4 paper**

Women are trying to make their waists smaller than a piece of paper in 'worrying' new social media craze

The 'A4 waist challenge' sees ladies hold up a piece of paper to their stomach to prove their bodies are more narrow

A bizarre social media craze taking the internet by storm is seeing women compare their waist measurements to PAPER in a bid to prove their fitness. The goal is to measure the same or narrower than A4 paper held in a portrait position (because obviously it would be too wide in landscape).
How wide is a sheet of A4 paper? Just 21 centimeters or 8.27 inches.
According to the women taking part, the belief is that the challenge is a very reachable and healthy goal to aim towards - and fit is the new sexy.

The images are being shared on social media website Sina Weibo - also referred to as Chinese Twitter - and follow similar crazes to prove fitness or 'womanhood'. Social media users have slammed the pictures as 'worrying' and 'wrong', saying this fitness trend is unrealistic.

In January, photos of women holding pens underneath their breasts went viral in a bizarre trend that saw them trying to prove that they were 'true' women.

It was a simple idea. Lift up your top, put a pen or pencil under your breast and if it is held in place, you're a 'true' woman. Snap a selfie and post it on social media.Some even took it a step further, experimenting with make-up brushes and bottles.

And that wasn't even the start of it. Before this trend was a challenge to post photos showing you can reach around your back and touch your belly button.The posts were accompanied by a hashtag, which translates as 'reach your belly button from behind to show you have a good figure'.

Given the apparent online obsession with body image, it looks as though more of these crazes will emerge as people think of more ways to prove their good looks.

Courtesy mirror