China’s “Godmother Of Sexual Intelligence” Banned On Social Media Over Viral “Female Charm” Courses

Dubbed “Godmother of sexual intelligence”, Chinese influencer Zhou Yuan, who rose to rose to prominence for selling courses on “enhancing female charm” and “sexual intelligence” has had her social media accounts banned amid mounting controversy.

According to Chinese media reports, Zhou Yuan has earned more than 24 million yuan (S$4.41mil) from selling courses through her “Black-and-White Disruptive Sexual Intelligence Academy,” with enrolment figures said to be in the tens of thousands.

Course fees range from as low as 9.9 yuan (S$1.82) for online classes to thousands of yuan, with some premium offline programmes such as training camps reportedly costing up to 88K yuan (S$16.2K).

Zhou Yuan’s videos — particularly those emphasising eye contact and body posture — recently went viral across Chinese social media platforms.

Phrases such as “send your gaze”, “let your eyes linger”, and “form your body into an X shape” became widely circulated memes, sparking a wave of imitation by netizens, influencers, influencers and even celebrities.

However, the viral fame was soon followed by backlash.

Zhou Yuan was criticised for running “charm cultivation” classes aimed exclusively at women and for teaching techniques perceived as encouraging flirtation through calculated body language.

Some of her videos were accused of being sexually suggestive and skirting the boundaries of vulgar content, prompting accusations that her courses “objectify women” and reduce female attractiveness to formulaic techniques designed to please men.

A former staffer from Zhou Yuan’s academy told Chinese media that the training content was “explicit” and admitted feeling embarrassed by some of the material.

Online critics went further, deriding the courses as “mistress training camps” and questioning the values they promote.

As the controversy continued to escalate, Zhou Yuan’s main social media accounts, including Douyin, were banned on January 22.

The incident has sparked widespread discussion about the boundaries of paid online knowledge content, gender perspectives, and the regulatory responsibilities of platforms.

While some students claim they gained inspiration from the courses, many argue such programmes, marketed under the banner of “sexual intelligence” but criticised as crude and exorbitantly priced, may negatively affect social values and the image of women.