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    1. Culture
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    In Today's WTF News, Have You Heard About The iPhone 6 Knee Challenge?

    If you ever needed a sign that the world has lot the plot, this is probably it.

    By Marie Claire
    Published 5 April 2016 In Features

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    If you ever needed a sign that the world has lot the plot, this is probably it.

    So, global warming means that Big Ben is going to be underwater within a couple of hundred years, and we're pretty sure our grandchildren are never going to get to meet a polar bear. Similarly, women across the world are having their breasts ironed off, and in Saudi Arabia, you risk being sent home from work if you dare to wear red on Valentine's Day.

    And yet still, the biggest thing society wants us to worry about is how fat our knees are.

    Yep, following on from the A4 challenge (which saw teenagers across the globe compare their abdomens to an office photocopier in-tray), the new test to check your attractiveness (and/or insecurity levels) comes in the form of the iPhone 6 challenge.

    Created by somebody with a) too much time on their hands, b) too much time on their hands, c) too much time on their hands, or d) sitting on the toilet with their phone in their lap and too much time on their hands, the challenge involves balancing your iPhone 6 (clearly if you don't have the latest technology, nobody cares about your lower limb fat) on your leg joints, to see whether your knobbly bits are hidden by the screen.

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    Of course, the most confounding thing about the entire challenge (aside from, y'know, the fact that it promotes inherently ridiculous and dangerous beauty standards) is the fact that if you actually want to participate, then you need another phone to take a photo of your original phone with.

    But here's the thing.

    Marie Claire Newsletter

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    While it's all very easy for us to raise our eyebrows, make a few sarcastic remarks and parody these challenges, that doesn't seem to be working as a deterrent for those initiating - and participating in - them in the first place. And considering the fact that they're mostly teenage girls - maybe it isn't all that funny, or stupid, or ridiculous after all.

    Maybe it's much more serious than that.

    Marie Claire
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