Young Women In China Are Copying “Greasy Men” Behavior On TikTok And It’s Too Real
“It’s funny because it’s true. Those who are offended better check themselves so that they don’t behave in this way.”
Young women in China are taking part in a viral challenge that involves imitating “greasy men”.
The video trend began in late April on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, when a Chinese woman influencer, Fangtouming (方头明), posted a series of videos imitating stereotypical “greasy” men.
She went viral with her “self-centered high school boy” persona, in which she makes fun of girl classmates’ appearances, jumps up and touches door frames and verbally harasses women teachers.
One of the most popular videos was one where she imitated men who take photos of women on the subway without permission.
Other women then jumped on the trend, copying “greasy” male behavior such as rubbing their chin, raising their eyebrows, biting their lips and sticking their tongues out.
Some of the videos even portray how men subconsciously make inappropriate physical contact with women, illustrating the issues that most women are forced to confront in their everyday lives.
“I feel so uncomfortable. The women did a great job [imitating the behavior], and men, yes, it does happen,” a person commented.
“It’s funny because it’s true. Those who are offended better check themselves so that they don’t behave in this way,” another wrote.
The videos are not filmed to mock men but to flip the script on women’s daily experiences of being sexually harassed, Sixth Tone reported.
“This imitation is a mirror, forcing men to see who they are and reflect how they present themselves in daily life, which has been normalized in the collective unconsciousness,” Zhang Nian, a philosophy professor at Tongji University and a pioneer scholar in feminist theory, told Sixth Tone. “I’d say this trend is a social drama or a social sculpture.”
