  Contemporary feminists utilize social media for activism, while backlashes
come along. The gender-related discourses are often diminished when addressing
public events regarding sexism and gender inequality on social media platforms.
The dichotomized debate around the Tangshan beating incident in China
epitomized how criminal interpretations of gender-related violence became a
backlash against feminist expressions. By analyzing posts on Weibo using mixed
methods, we describe the emerging discursive patterns around crime and gender,
uncovering the inherent gender-blind sexism that refutes feminist discourses on
the social platform. We also highlight the critical restrictions facing
grassroots feminist activism in Chinese cyberspace and propose implications for
the design and research related to digital feminist activism.
