In response to China’s ban on female models showcasing undergarments online, Chinese livestream fashion companies have adopted a new approach by featuring male models in their videos.
According to New York Post, livestreams featuring females modelling lingerie have had a history of being promptly shut down and banned as a result of the country’s law against spreading obscene material online. To work around this ban, some of these companies started hiring male models to flaunt women’s lingerie, including tight-fitting corsets and lace-trimmed nightgowns.
Videos going viral on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, showed these male models wearing a variety of lingerie styles. Mr Xu, who is the owner of a livestream business, even introduced a male model wearing a silk robe on the social media website.
“The light and luxurious boudoir of the wife and adults,” the caption of the post read, as per the outlet.
The clip garnered over 2,000 likes and a flood of comments. Internet users were quick to share their opinion on the gender-bending decision.
“If it’s a female model, the live stream would be banned every other minute, it’s not like this hasn’t happened before, this is still depriving a group of women of their job opportunities,” one user wrote. “the guy wears it better than the girl,” commented another.
A third user wrote, “This is like when women weren’t allowed to perform in commercial plays in Shakespearean times, so men performed the women roles instead,” while a fourth added, “Not all heroes wear capes”.
Speaking to Juipai News, Mr Xu stated that he doesn’t understand the fuss about the male models allegedly taking female jobs.
“Personally, we don’t really have a choice. The designs can’t be modelled by our female colleagues, so we will use our male colleagues to model it,” he told the outlet.
“Many directors of these live streams are women, are they also stealing men’s jobs?” he added.
According to Post, it is unknown how long this loophole will continue to work as China is also reportedly cracking down on “effeminate” depictions of men in the media.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
