one thing most any leftist will say about china despite supporting the country is that they're a very traditionalist culture, and so LGBTQ issues in particular are a blight on leftist westerner's otherwise positive view of china.

upon scrolling thru rednote, i think that's bullshit now. i really don't think you're worse off being LGBTQ in china than you are in america. yeah, you can't get married, but that right is under constant threat of being taken away in the US anyway and let's be real- it probably will be taken away. meanwhile, china is making progress on that front, the US wants to regress.

i saw multiple LGBTQ people on rednote. i saw a lesbian couple, one of the girls even said "LGBT is completely normal in china now, especially in the cities. even the older generations who might not accept it mind their own business". can that be said about america? how many queer people here have been accosted by some boomer who couldn't mind their own business? i saw the gayest fucking dude i've ever seen in my life (that's a compliment). he was also wearing makeup and sassily singing along with destiny's child. completely comfortable in his skin and with his identity, and while all of the comments and his speaking were in mandarin that i couldn't understand, you can tell by the vibe it was all positive. meanwhile in progressive america, if you're a guy who wants to put on makeup and go live on tiktok you're gonna face all sorts of homophobia and bigotry.

one of the few things western liberals could really say about china, that even those of us who are left wing and pro china thought to be at least somewhat true, appears to just straight up not be true.

(page 2) 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 49 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Makes sense. Cuba had some great strides on LGBTQ issues too.

load more comments (8 replies)

[–] sooper_dooper_roofer@hexbear.net 18 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I'm gonna be racist, it's not a governmental issue, Asians just don't get violent about stupid shit.

The structure of White hate is:

1/3 of whites intensely seethingly hate XYZ
white institutions SOMETIMES pass laws in response outlawing hate against XYZ (after dragging their feet for multiple decades/centuries)
the law is rarely enforced but whites will point to it as evidence that they're "more progressive" than other races while Black people get lynched in the year 2023

The structure of Asian hate is:

nobody cares

[–] sooper_dooper_roofer@hexbear.net 15 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

this goes back as far as the bronze age, where despite having the EARLIEST documented transgender woman, european culture were the least permissive of it. most other major cultures had "third genders", especially Indian/East Asian/CaribbeanAfrican ones. The transgender fossil was in a Polish Corded Ware grave, and thus pretty close to modern Europeans

[–] Des@hexbear.net 12 points 20 hours ago

the loss of worship of the original, warrior Ishtar doomed the euros

[–] GoodGuyWithACat@hexbear.net 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

#notalleuropeans

Ancient Norse myths and poetry suggest some sort of trans-gender or maybe third gender. For example if a woman were to take on a man's role (I e. warrior) she could be seen as a man. There was also stigmas against "men acting as women" but it's less clear what that means. Does it mean men being bottoms? Probably not because there's artwork depicting group sex and man on man love. Some historians suggest the stigma is for a man getting pregnant, a la Loki birthing Fenris, but it's unclear how that actually occurred in society. Women in men's roles has much more archaeological and poetic evidence.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] Hermes@hexbear.net 28 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Nearly all the LGBTQ people I have seen on XHS have been Chinese. I have not been seeking LGBTQ content out, so results could differ if you search for it.

CW: transphobic

I saw one Chinese person telling "Mixed-gender" people not to post about it, I don't remember much besides confusion in the comments. The post did not have much engagement.

[–] Jenniferrr@hexbear.net 31 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I also saw that comment. The vast majority of homophobia and transphobia I've seen comes from Americans, basically nothing from Chinese people that is obvious.

That being said, as I understand it, xiaohongshu is quite queer and dominated by women, so maybe it's not super representative of the country

[–] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 9 points 21 hours ago

I haven't really seen transphobia proper from any Chinese users, but I have seen a fair bit of enbyphobia from them

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I think when they say "don't really care/it's not important" they actually mean it, as opposed to Westerners who just use this as a smokescreen to hide their anti-queer sentiments.

[–] mar_k@hexbear.net 24 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

not only that, but many seem to admit there's progress to be made and hope/feel they are advancing in normalizing it

a lot of americans just act like in the past few years we've hit a plateau and become as accepting as we can possibly be, and that homophobia is really only still an issue with 80 year old republicans in the rural deep south or whatever. i saw chinese people asking americans how queer friendly we are, and that's basically what all the (presumably cishet) yanks had to say, contrary to the shit i hear while living in one of the most liberal areas in the country

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 16 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (5 children)

Probably not as much as you think, XHS is one app that represents a microcosm of Chinese society and a specific demographic. You can't judge a country by what you see on a single social media app. For a reverse scenario, imagine judging all of the USA by what you see on US Facebook for instance. You'd think the entire country was full of conspiracy theorists who don't understand modern society.

Then there's also the halo effect that's going on with Chinese users trying to be nice and welcoming to the foreigners, and Americans being on their best behaviour so they don't screw this up. So I wouldn't take everything at face value at this point in time. Something like that won't last forever, eventually the halo will wear off, on both sides.

load more comments (5 replies)

[–] Midnight_Pearl@hexbear.net 15 points 22 hours ago

i've seen multiple lgbtq couples out and about in various chinese cities (guangzhou especially and i've been told it's not even the gayest city there)

i myself look kinda androgynous and i got a few (polite and friendly) questions about my sex in some of the less diverse cities, but nobody was ever unkind or confrontational about it, which i can't say about the US

there was also a foreign series about a gay couple i think that blew up in china a couple years back. i forget what it's called but i remember the wikipedia article having some bullshit about it being popular "in spite of depictions of homosexuality being banned"

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 20 points 23 hours ago

i wish that the queer communities & spaces that i inhabit were just as well represented as they are in the united states; but exploring my latin american heritage over the decades has taught me that it's more of a function of historical cultural norms than china's political leanings.

i also know from experience that my communities & spaces barely exist at all in my country today and living in austin texas has given me a sneak preview of what this entire country will turn into in the near future; so i expect to move to another country by the next decade (and hopefully not against my will). i wish i could consider china as a prospective new home; but austin has taught me the hard way that i would not be happy there and that the west is the only place where these communities/spaces exist (even if it's barely at all), so it's where i must stay or else i literally go crazy like i did in the past.

[–] Spiteful_Gremlin@lemmy.ml 18 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm sorry but I've had a very different experience on rednote while browsing the #Lgbt tag.

I've seen at least 3 different posts

CW: anti-trans

Complaining about a billion genders, children getting "groomed" into being gay or trans, drag queens brainwashing children in schools, etc.

There's some very positive and informed content on the app as well, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows by a long shot.

Edit: I can't post the link but just take a look around the #lgbt tag

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments