In recent time, the status of women in China has been improving step by step. However, in some remote areas, people are still heavily influenced by sexist beliefs.

In said areas, due to low education level, gender stereotypes have achieved little improvements. Moreover, sexist beliefs have also appeared in urban areas. For example, men are more likely to get a job than women because of masculinity.

Specifically, gender discrimination in the workplaces has led to imbalanced sex ratio, which can also have a negative impact on the developments of the country. Gender discrimination in hiring and the workplaces has led to men getting more jobs and higher positions than females. In addition, political positions are pre-dominantly occupied by men, which implies that women have less voice in politics. As a result, women fail to express their opinions in such kind of situation. Of course, part of the reason for these phenomena is that women and men have different expertise in different fields, but a deeper reason is that the prejudice against women is still deep-rooted in contemporary China.

As a boy, I feel quite indignant about the unequal treatment imposed on women. It is well-known that women who wish to gain rights have tried different ways in the past. For example, radical feminists and liberal feminists have taken varied approaches and expressed different opinions in pursuit of feminism However, on Chinese social networks, I have noticed that, in most of the articles I have read, women who want to gain their rights tend to hold radical beliefs, such as women replacing the status of men and substituting the patriarchal society with a matriarchal one. I believe that such opinion has deviated from the original intention of feminists to achieve equality with men. To the supporters of the aforementioned notions, feminism have become a tool to control men. In my opinion, this form of pseudo-feminism may even cause great damage to the society. 

According to my recent studies, I would like to name such kind of feminism as “rural radical feminism”. It’s known to all those supporters of feminism will often parade or make public speeches to raise awareness for women’s rights. However, for rural radical “feminism”, most of its supporters mainly makes comment on the Internet. Moreover, their comments show a sense of egoism under the disguise of feminism. This indicated that, in reality, these rural radical “feminists” want to rule the world and gain power over others. They want to enjoy the rights but unwilling to take the responsibility. They say that women should be independent and not rely on men. But they are desperate for men to serve them.

I further went on to explore the question why such kind of “feminism” has only occurred in China. According to my observation, supporters of “rural radical feminism” are often women from the rural locations in China, where preference for sons over daughters is still prevalent. Women who grow up in such kind of environment are often treated unfairly and under-educated. However, due to the lack of resources and education, they have a limited view of women's rights and don’t know how to fight for equality. As a result, the Internet becomes a place for them to vent their rage.

Although China has undergone rapid social and economic development in recent years, the conservative ideas embedded in the people have yet to evolved at an equally fast speed. Especially in the rural areas, the feudal way of thinking still plagues people's heads today as the differences in region and ideology confined their thoughts. Nowadays, Internet gives everyone an equal right to express their feelings and ideas. Consequently, such kind of pseudo-feminism began to emerge on the internet and its believers trying to convince women who share the same situation to defy society.

However, it’s interesting that such kind of “feminism” does not exist in western society, which might be due to the following reasons. Western societies have not experienced radical social change like China, and the pursuit of women’s rights has been a gradual process. Since WWI, the awakening of women’s consciousness about gaining rights has evolved into feminism we know today. More than a hundred years after women’s rights were first voiced, we can still see the supporters of equal rights express their demands to society through demonstrations, which is the original purpose of women’s rights. Obviously, the origin of feminism is to fight for equal rights instead of fighting for extra rights. Undoubtedly, the rights and obligations that people have to perform are equal.

Generally speaking, I hope that the status of women in the world can be improved. However, I will also oppose actions that take radical measures to achieve their goals in order to pursue equality for women. The formation of rural radical feminism in China has complex reasons. For example, the gap between rich and poor in China is too wide. Moreover, the limitation of knowledge has led to the birth of pastoral feminism. Unlike traditional forms of feminism, such kind of pseudo-feminism may only disturb the online communities and can never help improve the status of women. It may even impede the pursuit of equality for real feminists.