CHina’s national television station is notorious for its conservative image of women and family. On Friday, the station lived up to expectations in an interview with shot put Olympic champion Gong Lijiao. A young reporter had to tell Gong that she looked like a man and a woman. She was asked what she planned to do in her future life as a woman. “As a woman?” Gong answered in surprise. The reporter said: “I mean, you are a man and a woman, now you can be yourself.”
The photographer wants to know if she has a boyfriend and if she wants to get married and have children. And whether she would break his arm during a fall. So far, Gong Lijiao has been playing with him, retorting lightly, using the sentence: “In my heart I am a woman.” Speaking of wrestling, the 32-year-old athlete finally dropped out of school.
In the commentary, The Paper accused the reporter of being “trapped in the value system of a patriarchal society.” She didn’t appreciate Gong’s athletic performance, her willpower and willingness to sacrifice, but instead asked what the annoying washerwoman would do. The commentator wrote: “No matter what you do as a woman or how much you achieve for the country, marriage is your ultimate goal in life.”
The society’s forced marriage and childbirth have been criticized by many Chinese women. This is why the contribution of the interview under the label “Marriage is the only topic you can talk to women?” has been viewed more than 300 million times. A blogger on the Vision website accused the reporter of suggesting that Gong “it is difficult for her to get married because she does not conform to the traditional beliefs of women. In fact, there are only a handful of men who are worthy of Olympic champion Gong as a woman.”
The shot putter then made a comment and added: “This is exactly what I want to say. Thank you.” Others thanked the country’s Olympic champions for breaking gender stereotypes. Posts labeled “Olympics corrected my aesthetic standards” have been viewed 500 million times on Weibo.
