Did this banning of effeminate men from Chinese TV remind anyone else of Hans and Franz from SNL?
Wandering way off topic here, but how long before China feels compelled to try to fill the vacuum, if only with soft(er) power tactics (and are the areas they’d be most interested in solidly Taliban or more under the sway of local warlords)?
And I think we might now know what that “something” is. It’s called Evergrande.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/evergrandes-cash-problem-is-now-beijings-political-problem-11631618922
Their collapse, as with Lehman in 2008, makes a reasonable person wonder, is this problem limited to this one company, or are we just getting this party started? Off-topic, but I also have to wonder about U.S. exposure, as well as exposure in other markets. This’ll be a story to watch
I’m pretty sure Xi wasn’t thinking: “I want the males of my country to get laid more often”.
This is about optics. He wants to portray his country as one NOT to be trifled with. A country full of strong manly men.
Xi isn’t concerned about taking over the world. He is just concerned about his own power. Sabre rattling at other countries, and being militaristic, is all about pointing the young males - the dangerous element in any human population - at an enemy outward so they don’t start thinking about the enemy inward - him.
This thing is going to go one of two ways. Xi is going to actually start a shooting war outward, to keep things focused outward, or there’s going to be an internal battle as he is overthrown as the old silverback always is, eventually. The best for all of us if it’s the latter and it’s not terribly bloody. The worst could be very, very bad.
Bear in mind, though, that to some degree those critiques worked: the 19th Century saw a return to “manhood”, with virtually all the male luminaries of the time growing massive beards to emphasize their masculinity.
Absolutely: in the fragile masculinity of patriarchal culture, critiques that some subset of men are being too “feminine” pretty much always work, to some degree.
Are they letting butch women on TV in China? Is Mulan cool?
This just one of a whole bunch of new rules China has come out with lately to attack the entertainment industry. Such as:
— Playing video games by schoolchildren is forbidden, except for a few hours on the weekend.
—Lip syncing in concerts is now forbidden.
—Concerts by K-pop artists are banned.
I frankly am not sure what all this means, except that they somehow think popular culture is a threat.
Like the grunge hippie rebel teenager who turned into a strict Boomer dad when he grew up, the CCP is now behaving more meddlesome-“show-me-your-grades” dad like than the traditional authority its Red Guards were all about overthrowing back in the day.
Butch women aren’t the same kind of threat to a Patriarchy that effeminate men are.
Butch women are seen as aspiring to have masculine traits.
Effeminate men are seen as lowering themselves to have feminine traits.
So this all relates to misogyny.