With netizens still getting over China’s last beauty meme, which involved comparing your waist with the width of a standard A4 sheet of paper, a new meme has arrived: the “iPhone leg”.
Like other Chinese memes compelling women to meet some arbitrary standard of beauty, the iPhone leg test is simple: if you can cover your knees using an iPhone 6 or 6s phone, you’ve passed.
While backlash to the “A4 paper waist” mostly came from Western Internet users who covered up their midriffs with university diplomas in protest, the “iPhone leg” has already provoked a negative response from Chinese netizens who are quickly growing tired of a long list of memes capitalizing on the popular selfie craze in China.
Here are some of the top voted netizen comments on the new meme from a report by the Yangcheng Evening Report:
我就是原来的红帐子里白胖子：
Are you out of your mind? Is it worth it to debase yourself? These women are so proud to objectify themselves… there’s no saving these people…长在树上的大南瓜：
Why am I reminded of bound feet when I look at this?___无敌大丑男：
The premise of this (meme) is that you need an iPhone 6 to do it.LIYANMINGXQ：
That’s quite enough. Can our society improve already?不要停止你的步伐：
D0n’t keep spreading around this type of unhealthy content!!! The way this keeps us, the beauty standard of the future will be skin and bones!!!禾火Li：
Are the (rest of you guys) bored?晨晨就叫夏天的海：
Does the media not (report) the news anymore?! Is there any end to this boring content?! Everyday they tow the same line on beauty standards. Even movie stars are idle enough to take part, an exercise that make my balls ache. Is there any difference (between these memes) and picking between concubines in the feudal past?武雪扬：
Is this a (beauty) standard brought on by being brain dead?
The past year has seen a number of these “beauty standard tests” that typically involve women posting selfies online. So far, we’ve seen women reach behind their backs to touch their own belly buttons as well as fold their hands behind their backs to show their flexibility; put a roll of coins on their collar bone to show their thinness; groping their own breasts from behind their backs; and the underboob pencil trick to show that their breasts are large enough. And, of course, we’ve seen the A4 paper waist memeearlier this month.