When Sabrina Wang, a Chinese university student, saw an online post that claimed that manufacturers of sanitary pads had been cheating women, selling them pads that were significantly shorter than advertised, she decided to measure her own. She was shocked to find that all three brands she had at home were shorter than labeled, by as much as 17 percent.

中国大学生萨布丽娜·王（音）在网上看到一个帖子，该帖称卫生巾制造商欺骗女性，卖给她们的卫生巾尺寸大大短于广告上宣传的尺寸。看到这篇帖子后，她决定自己测量一下。她震惊地发现，买回家的三个品牌的卫生巾都比包装上标示的短，最多短17%。

“If I had issues when using them, I’d wonder if it was that I had gone too long without changing them,” Ms. Wang, 22, said. “It was only after everyone pointed it out that I realized it was a manufacturing problem.”

“我原来会认为，如果我在使用时遇到问题，那是因为我太长时间没换卫生巾，”现年22岁的王女士说。“只是在大家都指出了问题后，我才意识到这是制造商的问题。”

She wrote her own post, urging other women to lobby for stricter oversight of pad makers. “Manufacturers think we can’t go without their products because of our everyday physiological needs, so they dare to be so arrogant,” she said in an interview. “It’s a lack of respect.”

她在网上发帖，呼吁其他女性游说对卫生巾制造商加强监管。“制造商认为我们每天都需要它们的产品，所以它们敢如此傲慢，”她在一次采访中说。“这是缺乏尊重。”

Ms. Wang was joining a chorus of voices in China that in recent weeks have demanded greater accountability from sanitary pad manufacturers and government regulators — and, more broadly, greater consideration of women. Criticism of the lengths of pads quickly expanded to scrutiny of their quality and price. From there, the conversation branched out to topics like inadequate sex education, body shaming and the lack of female corporate leaders.

王女士正在加入到要求对卫生巾制造商和政府监管部门追究责任的呼声中来，这一呼声已在近几周变得越来越大，而且延伸到在其它事务上更多地将女性纳入考量这一更广泛的要求。对卫生巾长度的批评迅速扩大到对其质量和价格的审视。而且，有关的讨论已扩展到学校不提供足够的性教育、身体羞辱，以及缺乏女性企业领导人等话题上。

Women have called for boycotts of brands they deem to be of subpar quality, and shared guides to making reusable pads at home. Dozens of hashtags about the topic, such as “black-hearted pads” and “Is it so hard for sanitary pad producers to meet women’s needs?” have trended online.

女性呼吁抵制她们认为质量低劣的品牌，并分享了在家里制作可重复使用的卫生巾的指南。网上关于这个话题的数十个标签，例如“黑心卫生巾”、“卫生巾生产商满足女性需求真的这么难吗？”等标签被广泛传播。

The backlash prompted one major manufacturer to pull all its products from the e-commerce platform Taobao, promising to improve them. State media outlets have denounced “deep-seated problems” in the industry. And a government-backed trade association promised to take public comments into account when formulating new regulations for sanitary products.

这种强烈反应已促使一家大型制造商从电子商务平台淘宝上下架了所有卫生巾产品，并承诺对产品进行改进。官媒谴责这个行业存在“根深蒂固的问题”。一个政府支持的行业协会承诺，对卫生用品制定新规则时，将征求公众意见。

The uproar is the latest example of how discussions of gender inequality have become increasingly common in China, even as the ruling Communist Party has worked to silence civil society and independent speech. Though the police have targeted high-profile feminist activists and organizations, a more nascent and general awareness of gender discrimination, often spread online by young women, has proved harder to stamp out.

尽管执政的中共一直试图压制公民社会和独立言论，但在中国，这场轩然大波是性别不平等的讨论变得日益普遍的最新例证。虽然警方已在有目的地打击知名的女权主义活动人士和组织，但人们已萌发了一种对性别歧视的更普遍认识，警方更难消除这种通常由年轻女性在网上传播的意识。

Menstruation, in particular, has become a popular rallying topic. During the Covid pandemic, many women criticized the lack of sanitary pads for medical staff. China’s high-speed rail agency did not sell pads on trains until an online pressure campaign in 2022 prompted some routes to begin stocking them.

尤其是月经，它已成为一个让人们产生共鸣讨论的热门话题。新冠疫情期间，许多女性对医务人员得不到卫生巾补给的问题作出批评。中国高铁系统曾一直不在火车上销售卫生巾，直到2022年的一场网络施压运动，才促使一些高铁线路改变做法。

The latest campaign began this month, when people on Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like platform popular with female users, posted videos showing themselves measuring their sanitary pads. They urged other women to follow suit.

最近这场运动始于本月，一些人在深受女性欢迎的小红书上发布了自测卫生巾的视频。她们敦促其他女性也这样做。

When women complained to the manufacturers’ customer service representatives about their findings, some initial responses were dismissive, fueling further outrage. A representative for ABC, a popular brand, told one woman that she didn’t have to buy the products if she was dissatisfied.

在向制造商客服代表投诉后，女性得到的一些最初的反应是置之不理，这进一步激起了女性的愤怒。名为ABC的知名卫生巾品牌的代表对一名投诉的女性说，如果对产品不满意，没必要非买它们。

Other brands noted that Chinese regulations permit labeling discrepancies within a certain range.

另外的品牌则指出，中国的法规允许卫生巾长度在一定范围内与标示不同。

Soon, many women began scrutinizing other details about their pads, such as their chemical content, or advertisements they perceived as sexist. They shared stories about being embarrassed by leaky pads. Others said the government should reimburse the cost of sanitary products through medical insurance.

很快，许多女性开始仔细审查她们卫生巾的其他细节，例如卫生巾的化学成分，或是她们认为带有性别歧视的广告。她们分享了因卫生巾渗漏而感到尴尬的故事。还有人说，政府应该允许女性用医保来报销卫生用品的费用。

Some women encouraged others to submit feedback to an industry federation in charge of drafting regulations for sanitary pads, even drafting suggestions to copy and paste, such as increasing random inspections on manufacturers and further restricting formaldehyde as a component.

一些女性鼓励大家把意见反馈到负责起草卫生巾法规的行业联合会，甚至为大家起草了可供复制粘贴的建议，例如加强对制造商的抽查、进一步限制甲醛含量等。

“The more I read, the angrier I got,” said Liu Ye, a 20-year-old student who joined the feedback campaign. “If many people submit opinions, there should be an effect.”

“我越读越生气，”现年20岁的学生叶柳（音）说，她参加了反馈意见的活动。“如果很多人提交意见的话，应该会有效果。”

Major pad manufacturers soon began issuing apologies. The founder of ABC shared a video in which he bowed to the camera and promised exact adherence to industry standards.

主要的卫生巾制造商很快开始道歉。ABC卫生巾的创始人分享了一段视频，他在视频中对着镜头鞠躬，并承诺严格遵守行业标准。

Still, despite the apparent success of the women’s protests, there were signs of official wariness toward mass mobilization and feminism. Even as state media outlets chided manufacturers for making low-quality products, they did so mostly from the perspective of protecting consumer rights generally, not women’s rights.

尽管如此，虽然女性的抗议活动取得了明显的成功，但有迹象表明，官方对群众动员和女权主义持谨慎态度。虽然官媒也指责制造商生产低质量产品，但它们那样做主要是从保护消费者权益而非女性权益的角度出发。

Ms. Wang, the university student who shared tips for lobbying regulators on Xiaohongshu, said her post appeared to have been partly censored; others could not see her replies to their comments, and the post’s viewership rate suddenly plunged overnight.

在小红书上分享了游说监管机构技巧的大学生王女士说，她的帖子​​似乎部分遭到了审查；别人看不到她对评论的回复，帖子的阅读率在一夜之间突然暴跌。

Other companies that have adopted advertising campaigns seen as appealing to feminists have backtracked after storms of online criticism from men.

一些公司曾用对女权主义者有吸引力的广告开展宣传活动，在遭到网上男性的批评后，这些公司已改变了做法。

For some women, even if the companies did change, it was too little, too late. Zhang Yanchi, a 23-year-old writer in central China, said she wanted to see female entrepreneurs building their own companies that respected and empowered women.

对于一些女性来说，即使这些公司确实有所改进，也为时已晚。现年23岁的张燕池（音）是中国中部的作家，她说，她想看到女性企业家成立自己的、尊重和赋予女性权力的公司。

“I am waiting for their pads,” she said.

“我在等着买她们的卫生巾，”她说。