“Pale, Young, and Slim” girls on red: a study of young femininities on social media in post-socialist China

Abstract

ABSTRACT RED (Xiaohongshu) is one of the most popular social media platforms in China. Through the act of sharing different lifestyles on this platform, young women users create and follow fashion trends that not only speak for their beauty aesthetics, but, more importantly, reveals their complex femininities. This article examines Chinese young femininities represented on RED, aiming to explore the complex interplay of social and cultural powers in the production of female subjectivities in the post-socialist context. With this point of departure, positioning RED as a culture genre to be analysed, the discussion focuses on two major female representations on this platform: “BM girls” and “Uniqlo-Sanrio girls.” Drawing on Foucault’s theory of “body as a site of power,” this article investigates how Chinese young women, positioned among multiple competing discourses, have been framed as the “docile body” through the collective pursuit of “pale, young, and slim” in post-socialist China.