A Feminist is Slammed Online When Her Son Took the Father’s Surname & So She Doesn’t ‘Live Up to Her Principles’

In this day and age, it is evident that the gender equality situation across the world is improving.

Anything that the male does, female can do it too, and vice versa. You see more career-oriented moms and stay-home dads now than ever before.

Which is why the younger generation is actively striving for gender equality, especially women’s rights.

Feminism.

But what if feminism is used as a reasoning for all the wrong things? Is it really feminism then?

A Feminist is Slammed Online Just Because Her Son Took the Father’s Surname

Introducing a China internet celebrity, who became famous for her feminist views. Jiang Yilei, known online as Papi Sauce, was slammed online on Mother’s Day.

Her only crime?

She revealed that her newborn son had been given his father’s surname. As a result, she was mocked by internet users, who accused her of failing to live up to her feminist principles.

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The attacks began on Sunday (10 May), where she shared a post on Weibo, China’s popular microblogging site. The post stated that she felt exhausted after becoming a mother.

A pretty normal post right? Why did she get so much hate for?

Well, it is not until an entertainment blogger, Enhe-I, shared Jiang’s post, and added the comment, “still her son adopts the father’s family name”. This started generated a lot of outrage online.

One of the responses shared that Jiang had previously said that her husband and her are independent, and they would each go to their own parents’ home for Chinese New Year. In addition, she also said that she has never visited her parents-in-law house.

Wah, need to play so big meh?

Another commented that Jiang had expressed that she once mentioned that she didn’t want a child. However, she got pregnant subsequently and now her child has her father’s surname.

To give a little background, Jiang had shot to fame for her videos, that would often depict women as victims of society’s gender stereotypes and encourage women to be themselves.

With 33 million fans on Weibo, it is definite that many young women must have looked up to her.

To believe that she is feminist and to witness her actions that weren’t “in line” with her principles must have angered her followers.

Response to The Criticism

On the other hand, Jiang responded indirectly to the criticism by pinning a video from last year at the top of her Weibo page. In the video, she insinuated that some people in society will not be satisfied with anything others talked about.

However, amid the hate, there were also other internet users who supported her.

One comment believed that she has the correct world views. It wrote that whether a women is independent or not, it is irrelevant to her child’s surname.

Because, erm, even a newborn cat will take its father’s surname, right?

Another feminist, Wei Tingting, remarked that Jiang’s attackers were not feminists at all, and the attack was akin to an “internet violence”. Wei is a psychologist based in the southern city of Guangzhou.

She further added that people who advocate feminism do not need to be “feminist” in everything they do. One should respect a woman’s choice, and if one were to criticise her choice, it is against the “spirit of feminism”.

To bring out the definition of feminism again, it means an advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.

Did it say that it is a must to portray that a women must be independent and cannot engage in any very traditional customs such as letting her child take after her husband’s surname?

Feminism is great, it brings equality to women’s plate. But using it for all the wrong reasons is just going to bring bad rep to it. After all, that’s not what feminism stands for, am I right?

Or maybe this isn’t all about feminism, but merely online hate. Who knows.