https://jingdaily.com/china-men-skirts-fashion-gender/
What Happened: A father in China has shared his young son’s experience of wearing a skirt to school. The post, which originally appeared on the platform Zhihu, has been reposted by some popular subscription accounts on China’s leading messaging app, WeChat. Since then, the topic has snowballed; the hashtag #canmaleswearskirts has gone viral amassing seven million views, with men in China posting images of themselves in skirts in a show of solidarity. While the boy in question received disapproval from his schoolteachers, and reactions to the initial post have been mixed, on the whole, online comments have been supportive.
The Jing Take: The unexpected mobilization behind this hashtag indicates that Chinese citizens are slowly pushing for more nuance and parity between gender roles in China. The high visibility of the country’s effeminate celebrities, or “little fresh meat,” who often opt for gender neutral or even cross-gender clothing choices means that young men are increasingly more exposed to less traditional role models in popular culture.