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What’s sexier than a bare collarbone? How about one containing a roll of quarters?
Fresh off the buzz from last week’s belly button challenge—in which women wrapped their arms around their backs to demonstrate thinness—Chinese social media site Weibo has been overwhelmed with posts of women loading change into the dip in their collarbones.
Less flexibility is required to meet the standards of the collarbone challenge, but its message is similar: The number of horizontally stacked coins indicates a “skinny and sexy” figure, ABC News reports.
So, Why Should You Care? As with the belly button challenge, there’s no science supporting deep-pitted clavicles as an indication of health and wellness. Yet challenges promoting one notion of a perceived body ideal persist, although pressure to lose weight can be damaging to women’s and girls’ self-esteem, leading to mental health issues including dangerous eating disorders, the literature shows.
“People who struggle with body image issues are especially vulnerable to these challenges and the onslaught of images that accompany them,” Claire Mysko, program director for the National Eating Disorders Association, wrote in an email.
“Despite the fact that none of them say anything about the participants’ health or what they’ve contributed to the world, when you’re in that self-critical mindset, images can override rationale and trigger all kinds of toxic thinking.”
Those with eating disorders aren’t the only people affected by these challenges. An inability to complete the task can take even the most confident women down a couple of notches.
“I hear from women all the time who identify as feminist and who feel doubly bad about themselves when they do get caught up in body criticism,” Mysko wrote.
“As if ‘knowing better’ and being aware of Photoshop and unrealistic beauty ideals should serve as some magic shield against the piles upon piles of insecurity-inducing crap we’re exposed to every day.”
As the collarbone hashtag has taken off on Instagram and Twitter in the past few days, several users have attempted to counteract the trend by placing other objects on their shoulders, such as food or soda cans. Mysko cautions that these silly images should poke fun at the “insanity of the cultural pressure” and not the women and men who participate and may be suffering from disordered eating.
While social media has globalized trends like this one, it’s not all doom and gloom in hashtag land: Body-positive tags like #EffYourBeautyStandards and #HonorMyCurves celebrate women of all shapes and sizes.
“[Those working at NEDA] are also very encouraged to see how body image activists worldwide are using social media to promote body positivity and body diversity,” Mysko wrote. “And the great thing about social media is that you can curate your own feeds. Fill them with content that makes you feel good about yourself and cut the comparison challenges altogether.”
The National Eating Disorders Association’s website and helpline—800-931-2237—offer resources for those looking to receive treatment for disordered eating.
By: Samantha Cowan
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