No boy in lady’s room: How China’s radical digital feminists alienate themselves from mothers, girls, and gays

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article employs semi-structured interviews with 57 Chinese women rallying behind the Weibo hashtag #NoBoyInLady’sRoom to explore their discursive strategies in defending women-only public spaces and their registration of antagonism toward China’s son-preferential gender norms. Distilling and discussing the three main discursive strategies adopted by these self-identified feminists to make sense of their collective motivation behind the bathroom crusade, this article finds streaks of exclusivity and alienation of Chinese digital feminism that target not only men but also mothers, girls, and queer people in the pursuit of a fundamentalist cause. Relying on the understanding of the contemporary state-platform dynamic in China as well as the historical legacy of China’s socialist women’s movement, this article further critically inquires into the politico-cultural implications of the radicalizing tendency of Chinese digital feminism and proposes a more communicative as well as inclusive approach to the grassroots solidarity of anti-patriarchy forces in authoritarian China.