Chinese university criticised for sexist recruitment ads to bait male students
A Chinese university has been criticised heavily for releasing a series of recruitment ads featuring female students dressed in military uniforms as bait to attract more male students.
According to CCTV News, Hangzhou Dianzi University, a school known for its science and engineering courses, wanted to boost its enrollment numbers of male students, and figured it would be a good idea to do so by showing off its attractive female student population.
The series of pictures, which appeared on Chinese chat app WeChat on Friday, were posted online in response to televised segment featuring a prospective male candidate, who said he didn't want to enroll in the school as he heard that there weren't many female students on campus.
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The pictures from the university were captioned: "The male-to-female ratio is around 2 to 1. Female students are not that few, and are good looking, kind-hearted and very smart."
The now-deleted post also pointed out that its campus was in close proximity to Zhejiang University of Media and Communications, which it claims has a high intake of female students.
It also went on to encourage prospective male students to "take the long view", hinting that if there was a good chance they'd meet their dream girl if they looked beyond the campus.
Netizens have criticised the university's sexist attitudes towards women and rejected its excuses that the post was written in jest.
A teacher, who goes by the surname Lu, told The Paper in the school's defence: "Because of the perception people had about the school lacking in female students, we thought the best way to counter that was to use humour."
One Weibo user sarcastically commented: "I don't know why I feel disgusted, it's probably because I'm a straight woman who doesn't have a sense of humour."
Another user, Rugexingban, wrote: “Has it ever occurred to you how those female students feel about their pictures being used as recruitment tools?
"And to the boys who choose universities according to their female students: Have you heard of any girls who opt for science schools over arts departments just because they have more boys? It’s your professional competence that is actually standing in your way."
The offending post was wiped off all Chinese social media networking sites a few days later, due to "data errors." It remains unclear if the students featured were in fact students from the university, or if they posed for the pictures with the knowledge of what they were being used for.
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