I set up “The box” account on the Red in the hope of interacting with more Chinese women in Generation Z, which is also a very important part of my research. However, when I sent out my first the Red note, I was banned for allegedly distributing pornographic content.
First of all, let’s review the position of “The box” on the Red. The profile reads: Hey, we are “The Box”! We are here to shake up the idea of women’s bodies without any restrictions or limitations! Unleash the energy of confidence in girls. Join us in redefining beauty, breaking down stereotypes and redefining beauty standards! Create a wave of body positive energy together! In this section, I clearly indicate the purpose and meaning of the account, which is positive and healthy. This profile aims to show my original intention to emphasise the subversion of the idea of women’s bodies and explore this proposition with everyone.
The first note I posted that was also found offending content is below:
Hello everyone, this is a project called ‘The Box’! I’m a student from Central Saint Martins MA and I’m really happy to share with you the project I’m working on.
In this age of change, Gen Z women are often subjected to traditional ideas of what society and the media expects from body image. We strongly believe that every woman should be free to embrace her body and build positive self-esteem and confidence.
Our mission is to redefine the standard of beauty for Gen Z women through positive messaging, sharing real stories and advocating body positivity. We are committed to breaking boundaries and creating a supportive and encouraging community where every woman can find confidence and strength in her unique body.
In addition, we interact with our fans on our platform in a fun and light-hearted way. We welcome you to join us in sharing your stories, asking questions, and participating in fun activities on the platform. We believe that through our interactions, we can explore body image issues in greater depth and work together to create a positive change!
Join “The Box” and join us in shaking things up and creating a positive, inclusive body image environment for yourself and other women. Together, let’s subvert societal expectations and make self-love the new trend!
BUT!!!!!
5 minutes after I sent it, I received a warning from the Red about ：
1. content involving real people without clothing;
2. content involving the exposure of sensitive parts;
3. designing content that violates community norms – distributing pornographic content.
As a result, I was banned for 7 days, and the content I posted was subject to limited streaming, which meant that I was not allowed to post any new content for 7 days, and the content I had already posted would not be pushed. I reflected on this and I really should have been more careful before posting, after all, the rules are different in every place. No matter what country, or what country’s internet, has its own rules and regulations, if I hope to be able to grow here, I have to understand and follow the rules of the game here, and find a way to deal with the problem under the rules.
Of course, I was still frustrated and confused about this. So, I sent this whole matter, to my WeChat circle of friends, so that people in my circle of friends could give me some feedback about this matter. (WeChat’s circle of friends isn’t exactly public, it’s basically people I know, similar to what’app)
The feedback I got was roughly as follows:
1, there is nothing wrong with the content I posted, it’s the platform’s review problem as well as the fact that similar topics and images are relatively sensitive in China. The commonalities in this category are that they are relatively young, most of them have a background of overseas study or have received an art education, and they are also predominantly female.
2, Tell me straight away that the images I post are problematic or pornographic, and that the content of the text is not important here. This category is predominantly older and male.
3, The reason for this is that I am not psychologically healthy enough myself, possess a highly narcissistic personality, and am seeking approval from the masses.
Seeing such feedback makes me laugh and cry. For the first two feedbacks, it was within my expectation that contemporary Chinese women want to pursue body freedom and break the confinement, while men are still under patriarchalism, blindly confident, and their tone is condescending. And the third comment managed to catch my attention. I’m not looking for public approval of my views here, but it made me realise that there is such a thing as ‘standards’ and who determines them. It’s as if a person who can eat spicy food very well has a completely different standard for what they see as mildly spicy than what someone who can’t eat spicy food sees as mildly spicy. That standard may be a hundred thousand galaxies apart. It’s like, in my circle, people talk about the body in a much more open way, and having been in that circle for a long time, I think it’s a very normal thing to do. It’s also normal to explore and promote body freedom. But over time, I seemed to get the feeling that I was in a well, that there was indeed a beautiful blue sky above me, and that I cared less and less about what was going on in the world beyond that sky. All of this doesn’t mean that I don’t accept negative comments, but that I need to step out of this circle of logical self-referentiality to learn more about ideas and to discover more real issues.
But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up. The concept and mission of “The box” is still important. After the ban on the Red was lifted, I’ve got a whole new set of content planned. I’m going to continue to share knowledge about body image, reblog YouTube videos, and share everyday content about body image. In the age of the internet, there are both opportunities and challenges. I hope that through my efforts, I can make more people revisit and accept ideas about women’s body image.