Photo: Screenshot of Nicolle Flint's video on Twitter
Although bilateral ties between China and Australia continue to sour recently, Chinese people have thrown their support behind a member of the Australian parliament, whose video combating sexism has gone viral in China.
MP Nicolle Flint, a South Australian Liberal, wore a bin bag in a video made in response to the "sexist garbage" criticizing her appearance published in an article on The Advertiser in Adelaide.
"Though Sino-Australia relations are kind of tense right now, I still want to say she did a great a job for standing up for women!" wrote netizen Afudechuntian in a post that has earned more than 10,000 likes on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
Flint's video, which was first released on Twitter on Monday with the caption "It's time women in public life are judged on what they stand for, not what they look like," did not go viral on Chinese social media until Wednesday.
In the article in The Advertiser, Flint was criticized for wearing stiletto heels, tight black pants that showed her ankles, pearl earrings and sporting a pearly smile.
Her office was vandalized not long after those offensive comments were published.
In response, Flint decided to shoot a video in which she addresses the criticism and then removes a coat to reveal a dress made from garbage bags to "match those rubbish views."
The original video has more than 255,000 viewers on Twitter, while the topic "Australian MP reacts to clothing critics by wearing garbage bag" had reached 21.87 million views on Sina Weibo as of Thursday afternoon.
"Nobody has the right to judge others by their appearance," another Sina Weibo user wrote. "A politician should be judged by his/her profession rather than appearance."
Ties between China and Australia have been souring since Australia unilaterally suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong after a newly adopted national security law was put into force in the Chinese special administration region.
Flint's case came days after a Chinese cosplayer at the Shanghai Comic Convention was criticized on social media for wearing a Japanese high-school uniform and posing suggestively for cameras, with comments calling her appearance "pornographic" or saying she was acting like a "whore."
A photo of the cosplayer shot from behind as she knelt on the ground with legs spread quickly went viral on social media, leading to many to leap to attack her.
The incident then ignited wide debate on the discrimination women face over their clothing as well as cyber violence.
The cosplayer later apologized but noted that she was posing for photographers in front of her and did not realize that some cameramen had moved around to shoot her from an inappropriate angle. She added that she is currently pursuing a lawsuit against these cameramen.