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Unveiling the Contested Digital Feminism: Advocacy, Self-Promotion, and State Oversight Among Chinese Beauty Influencers on Weibo

Qingyue Sun Orcid Logo, Runze Ding Orcid Logo

Social Media + Society, Volume: 10, Issue: 3

Swansea University Author: Runze Ding Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/20563051241283301

Abstract

Through a qualitative analysis of feminist posts shared by Chinese beauty influencers, this study explores the political potential and limitations of their engagements in digital feminism on Weibo. Chinese beauty influencers show the potential to shape everyday feminist discourses and promote female...

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Published in: Social Media + Society
ISSN: 2056-3051 2056-3051
Published: SAGE Publications 2024
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67704
first_indexed 2024-09-17T12:21:22Z
last_indexed 2024-11-25T14:20:40Z
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spelling 2024-10-24T11:46:04.1866004 v2 67704 2024-09-17 Unveiling the Contested Digital Feminism: Advocacy, Self-Promotion, and State Oversight Among Chinese Beauty Influencers on Weibo e91044d4c2380a85b8861c7d0179e124 0000-0003-2284-5736 Runze Ding Runze Ding true false 2024-09-17 CACS Through a qualitative analysis of feminist posts shared by Chinese beauty influencers, this study explores the political potential and limitations of their engagements in digital feminism on Weibo. Chinese beauty influencers show the potential to shape everyday feminist discourses and promote female solidarity on Weibo. However, beauty influencers’ feminist practices represent a form of contested activism, situated at the intersection of state governance, platform power, and entrepreneurial demands, subtly reconfiguring digital feminism in China. By converting feminist sentiments into brand assets through self-branding and promotional activities, influencers’ feminist practices feed into the platform’s profit motives and their own career advancements. Moreover, beauty influencers adopted what we call “state-aligned, soft activism,” inadvertently perpetuating the non-emancipatory gender discourses endorsed by state governance. Their engagement with digital feminism exemplifies the ambivalent feminist politics within the Chinese digital space dominated by state control and commercial logic, reflecting inherent contradictions and broader tensions in conducting meaningful feminist activism within a constrained environment. Journal Article Social Media + Society 10 3 SAGE Publications 2056-3051 2056-3051 China, digital feminism, feminist activism, beauty influencer, self-branding 26 9 2024 2024-09-26 10.1177/20563051241283301 COLLEGE NANME Culture and Communications School COLLEGE CODE CACS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University 2024-10-24T11:46:04.1866004 2024-09-17T13:11:38.2654288 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR Qingyue Sun 0000-0002-5566-781x 1 Runze Ding 0000-0003-2284-5736 2 67704__32570__743876ddbb75465f9ce2e3a05ab7b1d0.pdf 67704.vor.pdf 2024-10-09T12:43:48.9497687 Output 261564 application/pdf Version of Record true This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
title Unveiling the Contested Digital Feminism: Advocacy, Self-Promotion, and State Oversight Among Chinese Beauty Influencers on Weibo
spellingShingle Unveiling the Contested Digital Feminism: Advocacy, Self-Promotion, and State Oversight Among Chinese Beauty Influencers on Weibo
Runze Ding
title_short Unveiling the Contested Digital Feminism: Advocacy, Self-Promotion, and State Oversight Among Chinese Beauty Influencers on Weibo
title_full Unveiling the Contested Digital Feminism: Advocacy, Self-Promotion, and State Oversight Among Chinese Beauty Influencers on Weibo
title_fullStr Unveiling the Contested Digital Feminism: Advocacy, Self-Promotion, and State Oversight Among Chinese Beauty Influencers on Weibo
title_full_unstemmed Unveiling the Contested Digital Feminism: Advocacy, Self-Promotion, and State Oversight Among Chinese Beauty Influencers on Weibo
title_sort Unveiling the Contested Digital Feminism: Advocacy, Self-Promotion, and State Oversight Among Chinese Beauty Influencers on Weibo
author_id_str_mv e91044d4c2380a85b8861c7d0179e124
author_id_fullname_str_mv e91044d4c2380a85b8861c7d0179e124_***_Runze Ding
author Runze Ding
author2 Qingyue Sun
Runze Ding
format Journal article
container_title Social Media + Society
container_volume 10
container_issue 3
publishDate 2024
institution Swansea University
issn 2056-3051
2056-3051
doi_str_mv 10.1177/20563051241283301
publisher SAGE Publications
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR
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description Through a qualitative analysis of feminist posts shared by Chinese beauty influencers, this study explores the political potential and limitations of their engagements in digital feminism on Weibo. Chinese beauty influencers show the potential to shape everyday feminist discourses and promote female solidarity on Weibo. However, beauty influencers’ feminist practices represent a form of contested activism, situated at the intersection of state governance, platform power, and entrepreneurial demands, subtly reconfiguring digital feminism in China. By converting feminist sentiments into brand assets through self-branding and promotional activities, influencers’ feminist practices feed into the platform’s profit motives and their own career advancements. Moreover, beauty influencers adopted what we call “state-aligned, soft activism,” inadvertently perpetuating the non-emancipatory gender discourses endorsed by state governance. Their engagement with digital feminism exemplifies the ambivalent feminist politics within the Chinese digital space dominated by state control and commercial logic, reflecting inherent contradictions and broader tensions in conducting meaningful feminist activism within a constrained environment.
published_date 2024-09-26T08:18:49Z
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