Chinese women hit back after being labelled ‘sick lady’ influencers who use illness to sell products in media reports
- Chinese media has been targeting what it calls ‘sick ladies’: women who use illness to attract attention then sell products to their followers
- Four women pictured in a recent article have said the report was wrong and that they were genuinely ill
Four Chinese women targeted in media reports attacking them for wearing make-up during hospital stays and for selling products have responded and said they were unfairly smeared by the reports.
Their response came after the Health Times, a publication run by the People’s Daily, published an article on Tuesday criticising “sick ladies”, a term coined by the newspaper about women who posted pictures of themselves in hospital with make-up and said they were suffering from various conditions including thyroid cancer, thyroid nodules, breast cancer and depression.
According to the reports the “sick ladies” would claim to have recovered and are share their post-operation recovery tips, while promoting products such as scar repair patches.
Calling them influencers, the report said the women were dressed in hospital gowns, wearing delicate make-up and looking sweet as they lay in their hospital beds in their social media posts. It also quoted an unidentified doctor who said public hospitals would not allow patients to bring in “complicated make-up”, only cleansers or soap.
“These people claimed to be seriously ill and posed in hospital with make-up in order to attract attention, traffic, and followers to sell products, which is a desecration of medicine and hospitals and a disrespect to patients suffering from illnesses,” the report said.