If I remember correctly, the “effeminacy” thing China has been gunning against isn’t about gender expression as much as “idol culture”. I’ll see if I can find the threads I was reading on that from a queer activist in China.
As is typical, the western media happily jumped on trying to use this as a propaganda angle. The thread I was reading had some criticism of other policies because China isn’t a utopia, but it was pretty clear on the intent there.
Edit: Found it. Thread on the topic from our comrades over at r/GenZedong.
China has plenty of its own social issues with queer / LGBTQ+ rights (eg gay marriage still being illegal) and is not always going to line up with our own cultural indicators either.
Understanding the context involved with a policy like this allows us to critique it more clearly than the very generalized take on it we’re seeing from most western press.
Given our media’s vested interest in attacking China from any angle they can, I think it’s healthy to not take these stories at face value when they’re first presented to us.
Our country is trying very hard to manufacture consent for this latest cold war and none of us are immune to propaganda.