The rise of feminist activism in China: How women are challenging beauty standards
Written by Victoria Kong
Photo by Laurentiu Morariu / creative license
A new wave of feminism is surging online in China, challenging conventional beauty standards, the pink tax and period stigma on social media.
A wave of women’s empowerment movements is sweeping across mainland China and the digital landscape, focusing on the “anti-beauty duty”, the pink tax, and debunking period stigma. Social media platforms like XiaoHongShu and Douyin are at the forefront of these initiatives, empowering women and girls to challenge societal norms.
The “anti-beauty duty” movement known in Chinese as “Jué jué fú měi yì” translates as “rejecting doing service in the beauty military.” The term originates from a popular internet slang phrase that refers to the costly and sometimes painful devotion to conventional notions of attractiveness. This rising movement encourages women to reject traditional beauty standards, which can cause not only mental strain but also bodily harm.
Instead, a growing number of women are choosing to get buzz cuts instead of maintaining long hair which is costly and time-consuming from washing, styling and dying. Others have opted to forego the trend of wearing coloured contact lenses to make their eyes look bigger, as these can cause dry, sore and irritated eyes. Since large eyes are a sought-after Chinese beauty ideal, coloured contacts have been a popular way for women and girls to achieve this look.
Additionally, the recent “A4 paper waist challenge”, where women try to match their waist size to the width of an A4 sheet of paper, has led some to resort to drastic measures like extreme dieting and over-exercising. According to Dr Candise Lin, a PhD graduate in Educational Psychology and popular Instagram creator covering Chinese pop culture, this trend is “expensive and unfair to women”. Lin also remarks that, “many women refuse to go on a diet to fit into a size 0 dress, instead they opt to wear loose-fitting clothes as that’s the most comfortable.”
Addressing the “pink tax”
Activists are also tackling the “pink tax”, a term that describes the tendency for women’s products to be more expensive than those marketed towards men, seen on Chinese shopping platforms like Taobao. On XiaoHongShu, there have been videos circulating that claim that products marketed for women, often in the colour pink, are 10 to 20 times more expensive than men’s. For example, when searching for laptops, a black laptop is RMB $5,499 (approximately US $757.66), but the same laptop in pink is RMB $6,499 (US $907) — a thousand dollars more.
The hashtag #PinkTax has attracted millions of views on Chinese social media platforms. This is changing the way women shop online with many opting to add the noun “men” after every product they search for on TaoBao, so that products that are supposedly aimed at men that have better materials, are more durable and are hundreds of dollars cheaper, will pop up in search results.
Pú zhī zhī, a popular Chinese model with over 200,000 followers on XiaoHongShu, stated in a recent video, “To reject the pink tax (when online shopping) we must avoid products labelled for women or girls, instead, we should be searching for products labelled as “synonymous with daily necessities” or “androgynous”. For example, “Anti-period leak mattress” should be worded as “adult care mattress”, and “mini facial mask refrigerator” should be worded into “mini fridge for cars”.” She adds, “As girls, we should take measures to not let those unscrupulous businessmen use corrupt methods like the pink tax to scam our money.”
Debunking period stigma
Social media campaigns are encouraging women to openly discuss menstruation, with many influencers promoting keychains bearing messages as a way to fix the stigmatisation of asking for menstrual products in public.
Typically girls will store menstrual pads in big black bags or hide them under their sleeves so no one can see, however in a XiaoHongShu video by Chinese influencer La Mu Xi Xi, she goes out on the street wearing a big keychain on her bag that reads “Ask me if you need a pad” to encourage girls to not be ashamed of asking for a pad in public when in need.
The popular beauty influencer, who has more than 65,000 followers stated, “I believe this idea deserves a really big thumbs up. Girls getting their periods is an extremely normal bodily phenomenon, so there is nothing to be ashamed of. If you see a girl wearing this sign, don’t be afraid to boldly step forward and ask for a pad.” She ends the video by concluding, “Be your authentic self, as in reality, no one will scrutinise your every move.”
As digital feminist activism continues to grow on Chinese social media, these movements are not only challenging long-standing beauty norms but are also fostering a more inclusive dialogue around women’s health and economic equality. The rise in engagement on these platforms suggests that attitudes are changing, with women in China feeling increasingly empowered to advocate for their rights and wellbeing.
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