Girls' Day banners bearing slogans that Net users said were sexually harassing in nature were ordered to be taken down by a Guangzhou-based university on Monday.
South China Agriculture University announced Monday via its official WeChat account that it has banned the hanging of vulgar banners on campus without permission from the university, citing regulations issued in 2008.
It has become common in Chinese universities for boys to make banners to "please" girls on March 7, which has been dubbed Girls' Day - a festival derived from International Women's Day on March 8 - but the slogans have begun to feature sexual implications in recent years, news site ifeng.com reported Monday.
"The spring breeze has no way to compare to sleeping with you," read one banner hung at Guangdong Medical University, according to a picture posted by Sina Weibo user Women Awakening. "Goddesses! Don't play with A-bombs anymore, but come home with me," read a banner at Tsinghua University.
Some of the slogans on the Girls' Day banners are "vulgar, dirty or commercial, which bring a bad influence to the campus," the announcement by South China Agriculture University read.
"From the boys' point of view, the slogans might be entertaining, while for girls they are humiliating," an unnamed student from South China Agriculture University was quoted in the announcement as saying. "The festival was set up to respect women, instead of being an excuse for males to release androgen," another student said.
Systems of assessment and resource allocation throughout society disadvantage women while males are given more opportunities, said Chen Lan, founder of a nongovernmental child abuse prevention organization. She added that the social division of labor continues to define women as inferior and subordinate to males.
