'Chinese women are holding pens under their breasts and posting pictures because... Who knows.'

The so-called Pencil Test is an informal test that will tell you if you need to wear a bra or not.

The theory goes that a young woman can place a pencil in the crease under her breast and if it stays there, she’s in need of some support.

Because the world is the funny ol’ place it is, women in China have now adapted the pencil test to the Internet-era, taking photos of themselves with pens under their ample bossoms and posting them on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter along with the #carrypenunderbreast.

Sort of like if Eliza Doolittle tried to balance and iPad on her head in ‘My Fair Lady’.

It goes like this:

According to the Daily Mail the trend may have originated in Japan and has been gaining traction since the beginning of the month, with the topic already has more than 1.24 million views.

One user wrote: “What exactly is the standard of being a proper girl? Recently, people in Japan invented a new standard, that is — to hold a pen under your breast. Only when you can do that are you a real girl.”

The implications of such a sentiment are so offensive to so many groups of women that I can’t even be bother unpicking them, so I won’t.

Pictures are also cropping up under other labels including ‘new standard for a goddess’ and ‘only a real woman can do this’. SIGH.

Bizarre beauty standards and essentialising women to their body parts aside for a moment, the competition is getting increasingly heated, as women try to prove their breasts are the most buxom by lifting other objects, such a chopsticks, make up brushes and water bottles.

Like the Kylie Jenner lip challenge, this peculiar form of idiocy will likely disappear into the annals of social media tomfoolery, but geez, it didn’t make me feel any better about my rack.