A Chinese university has removed vulgar banners to mark Girls' Day following protests by netizens over its explicit content.
South China Agriculture University in Guanzhou said it has banned the vulgar banners being hung in the campus without permission from the university, state-run Global Times reported today.
It has become common in Chinese universities for boys to make banners to "please" girls on March 7, which has been dubbed Girls' Day - a festival derived from International Women's Day on March 8 - but the slogans have begun to feature vulgar content in recent years, local media reports said.
Some of the slogans on the Girls' Day banners are "vulgar, dirty or commercial, which bring abad influence to the campus," the announcement by the university said.
"From the boys' point of view, the slogans might be entertaining, while for girls they are humiliating," an unnamed student from South China Agriculture University was quoted in the announcement as saying.
"The festival was set up to respect women, instead of being an excuse for males to release androgen," another student said.
Systems of assessment and resource allocation throughout society disadvantage women while males are given more opportunities, Chen Lan, founder of a nongovernmental child abuse prevention organisation said.
The social division of labour continues to define women as inferior and subordinate to males, she said.
