Digital Feminist Research Articles

#Winemom culture

Experts trace a congruent trend, pinpointed as originating around the 2010s (Grose, 2020) and only accelerating in the pandemic and its aftermaths: the rise of social media activity relating to parents’ performances of their substance abuse – what this paper defines as “#winemom culture” – with a broader social tendency, a general increase in “rates of high-risk drinking” that lead to such outcomes as “long-term health damage” and “dangers to family” (Macarthur, n.d.). I interrogate the ethics of moralizing against #winemom culture under COVID-19 culture and its aftermaths through exclusively quantitative metrics or surface-level analysis. As with anything coded according to the “momification of the Internet” (Dewey, 2015), such cultures are often disregarded, seen as superficial or in receipt of unchecked judgments. I trace the following question: What can #winemom culture reveal about how parents are processing and communicating within this moment? And begin from the premise that there are as-yet undetermined drivers motivating what appears to be a “zoning out” (Heyes, 2020) in the mediation of #winemom culture production. This project then opens into an analysis of how to actually study digital feminist practices in this current moment, one that is defined by methodological crises surrounding the increasing complexities of enacting justice in social media research. This paper thus serves as a methodological disquisition for feminist researchers attempting to perform ethically just social media research.

Digital Feminism, Public Theology, and the Reshaping of Female Subjectivity in Ghana

Abstract Taking the online feminist group Pepper Dem Ministries as a case study, this article assesses how a public theological approach to gender activism underlies public gender discourses by allowing online feminism to attain global-local and post-colonial dimensions. This is explored through a rhetorical analysis of Pepper Dem Ministries’ online and offline discourses, and the response of young Christian women to their activism. These responses are obtained from semi-structured interviews conducted via zoom calls. The discourse of identity fragmentation in modernity frames the analysis of this data, revealing the coherence of Pepper Dem Ministries’ rhetoric with fragmentary or unsystematic theology as a mode of public theological engagement. The article concludes that the social shaping of female subjectivity in Ghana transpires as a public theological discourse influenced by and coherent with global discursive patterns in online feminism, Christian and secular feminist discourse, and public theology.

Proud to be not beautiful: navigating affects in the rebellious body project of Chinese TuoMeiYi feminism

ABSTRACT In recent years, TuoMeiYi (escaping beauty duty) has emerged in the Chinese digital space as a distinct feminist proposition. Advocating for women to break free from the constraints of beauty, TuoMeiYi feminists strive to redefine what a woman should look like, and actively practice their anti-beauty stance by shaving their hair into buzz cuts. This everyday feminist politics attempts to reclaim women’s autonomy over their bodies by transforming their feminist body into a rebellious project. Diverging from the prevalent media discursive approach in Chinese digital feminism studies, this article examines TuoMeiYi feminists’ explorative body project through the lens of affect grounded in corporeal and phenomenological feminist theories. Using digital ethnography to explore an online TuoMeiYi forum, this article recognizes that pride and shame have been discursively mobilized as pivotal tools to sustain the anti-beauty feminist ideal. Yet, the construction of the proud feminist subject also involves a highly self-autonomous logic that tries to eliminate feminist embodied feelings. In the end, this article argues that it is not ‘feeling good’ but the ‘strange feelings’ that demonstrate the feminist body is neither a docile nor consciously autonomous entity, but a rebellious affective being capable of feeling in unplanned alternative ways.

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

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.

From meme-making trolls to feminist artists: digital feminist art activism in contemporary South Korea

ABSTRACT This article explores the activism of Silent Megaphone, a Korean feminist artist group. By examining the experiences of Silent Megaphone members, their artworks, and exhibitions, this study argues that the sexist regulations of online platforms drove the meme-producers to enter the realm of feminist art, transforming them from anonymous women to feminist artists with authorship. This transition allowed them to rearrange the aims and styles of their activism, appropriate the practices of online and offline realms, and connect with the broader feminist artist community, establishing a network encompassing both their online feminist group and an unexpected cohort of feminist artists spanning generations, and creating a safe space for their fellow feminists.

#Freebritney: strategies of counternarratives and self-regulation in digital feminist counterpublics

ABSTRACT The conservatorship of Britney Spears represented a legal arrangement that placed multiple restrictions on the celebrity’s autonomy. The conservatorship also became the center of an activist movement that demanded a restoration of her rights, commonly known as #FreeBritney. Since 2009, this primarily online group has worked to raise awareness of and bring an end to Spears’ conservatorship, an objective that was ultimately achieved in 2021. Through a thematic analysis of interviews with self-identified #FreeBritney activists, we analyze this movement as a digital feminist counterpublic through two key themes: 1) #FreeBritney’s central mechanism of generating counternarratives about Britney Spears’ conservatorship and 2) its self-regulating structure. Taken together, these themes surface #FreeBritney’s feminist values, specifically regarding its attention to representation, narrative, and non-hierarchical organization practices. We argue that #FreeBritney poses compelling questions about key tensions at the intersection of fandom, digital activism, and feminist media theory. By positioning #FreeBritney as a digital feminist counterpublic that achieved its main goals, we interrogate the multifaceted nature of digital engagements with feminism, building on important work in internet, media, and feminist studies.

Wo∼Men and Leadership: Re-Thinking the State of Research on Gender and Leadership Through Waves of Feminist Thinking

Feminist thinking has contributed to changing views of women in society and in leadership positions. Yet women are still underrepresented in leadership, especially in key roles and at higher organizational ranks. In this commentary we examine the past, present, and future of leadership theories through a gendered lens, by considering them against the backdrop of feminist theory evolution. We first organize existing leadership theories according to four main feminist waves— gender reform feminism or “fixing the women” which corresponds with liberal feminism; gender resistance feminism or “the female advantage,” reflecting radical feminism; the gender rebellion feminism or “how is a wo(man) defined,” according to postmodern and intersectionality theories, and gender digital feminism or “hashtag and clicktivism revolution” that focuses on social media, cyber activism, sexual violence, and complex intersectionality. We further examine the implications and research findings of these theories for women and men in leadership. Second, we review the publications on gender and leadership in two exemplary journals publishing leadership research in the field between 2019 and 2022 and explore to which feminist wave the published works relate. We show that themes related to the first two waves of feminist thinking continue to be dominant in current leadership research and encourage moving into new terrains, utilizing current feminist thinking, in the study of leadership and gender. Finally, we raise awareness that in a gendered society, leadership theories may reproduce and reconstruct the existing social order and gendered arrangements, as well as map novel directions for future research.

Women, peace and security: Digitalization and cyber feminist solidarity building in the global South

Since its launch in 2000, the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and resulting WPS agenda are widely used by intergovernmental, governmental, and civil society actors to advance women's participation in peace and security matters. This paper investigates WPS-cyber sphere connections to uncover the implications for the WPS agenda in the digital realm. We ask: How can digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) facilitate solidarity building and efforts to support the WPS agenda? Building on WPS scholarship and cyberfeminism, we explore our question through Nepal and Sri Lanka, both postwar countries located in South Asia that demonstrate digital feminist future possibilities. Using primary sources from social media and secondary publications, we argue that there is potential for solidarity building in WPS digital networks. This paper contributes to understanding the digitalization of women's movements, building digital feminist solidarity, and the cyber realm's potential for the WPS agenda.

When digital feminisms collide with nationalism: Theorizing “pink feminism” on Chinese social media

This article examines how Chinese digital feminists synergize with cyber nationalism to fight the patriarchy and strive to legitimize feminist discourse in Chinese digital realms, where online feminists face strict state censorship and nationalistic backlash. We situate pink feminism as a form of Internet-based nonconfrontational feminist activism revolving around nationalism, in which “pink” connotes young female nationalists, and analyze its precarity within an authoritarian state and neoliberal platform economy. We argue that while pink feminism contributes to the plurality of Chinese feminisms by legitimatizing feminist expression within nationalist frameworks and reinterpreting Chinese nationalism from a feminist perspective, it may inevitably reinforce the existing power structures that feminists seek to dismantle. We suggest that Chinese digital feminists should strategically and consciously engage with pink feminism without ceding feminist autonomy and reflexivity. This study enriches our understanding of the entanglement between feminism and nationalism in non-Western contexts.

From one-child policy to three-children initiative: a feminist critique of the population planning policies in China

Abstract This article examines the continuity of heteropatriarchal discourse within China’s population policies, focusing on the transition from the one-child policy to the current three-children initiative, and women’s responses to these official narratives. Through the lens of Foucauldian bio-politics, the study explores how discursive practices surrounding family planning policy are manipulated to sustain authoritarian rule, linking it with loyalty to the state and fostering an anti-feminist support base that attributes collective feminist movements to “excessive education.” The “optimization” of the family planning policy is analyzed as a discursive construct that conceals dehumanizing policies reducing women to mere reproductive machines, and portraying children solely as future labor force. This paper argues that the digital feminist movement in China is sustained by women’s constant engagement with, and resistance against official narratives that co-opt feminism to serve the state’s bio-political agenda of managing and controlling the female body.

Looking Back to Look Ahead: COVID-19, domestic violence, and digital activism in India

We look back to explore the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on domestic violence amplification in India and the digital activisms that spotlighted this social and health injustice. This analysis focuses on two case studies – the #LockDownMeinLockUp [#LDMLU] campaign mobilized on Instagram, and articles drawn from the digital feminist publication, Feminism in India [FII]. We share our perspectives on how the #LDMLU campaign visually politicized the public nature of a silenced and normalized injustice against at-risk women during a pan-national health crisis. We turn to FII’s reporting on DV exacerbation during India’s pandemic that vocalized this issue from three critical perspectives: structural problems that contribute to gender injustices; financial violence; and mental, emotional, and physical health impacts on abused and at-risk women. In addition to this ‘look back,’ we look ahead to consider calls-to-action and opportunities, digital and/or on-ground, that remain imperative after the urgency of the viral lockdown. We are still at the threshold of activisms waiting, and needing, to happen. We conclude with questions for ourselves and our readers about what happens to advocacy when urgency ends. This growing body of feminist work demonstrates that advocacy will persist across physical and virtual landscapes. It is our responsibility and hope, as gender and communication scholars, to rally challenges against oppression based on gender or sex. Domestic violence against Indian women is continually overlooked. Our collective perspective intends to consolidate visibility toward such acts of abuse at the center of this scholarly piece.

Online feminist stand-up comedy: an emerging affective-discursive intervention on gender in China

ABSTRACT This article focuses on online women’s stand-up comedy in China and its intervention on gender-related and feminist issues. Acknowledging the role of affect in both stand-up comedy performance and the formation of feminist politics, we conduct an affective-discursive analysis of women’s stand-up performances from the popular Chinese online stand-up comedy show Rock & Roast (脱口秀大会). In the analysis, we explore how the female comedians discursively and physically express two affects – disgust and shame – in ways that reveal their bodily and affective awareness of everyday gender inequalities. We argue that these online performances create a digital affective space which allows everyday affects of Chinese women to be expressed, circulated, and shared. These stand-up performances are affective-discursive manifestations of female comedians’ self-authorship and self-empowerment in the contemporary context of Chinese digital feminisms.

Digital feminist movements: The feminist struggle in the Americas

Digital feminist movements: The feminist struggle in the Americas

Dismantling Gender Blindness in Online Discussion of a Crime/Gender Dichotomy

Contemporary feminists utilize social media for activism, while backlashes come along. The gender-related discourses are often diminished when addressing public events regarding sexism and gender inequality on social media platforms. The dichotomous debate around the Tangshan beating incident in China epitomized how criminal interpretations of gender-related violence became a backlash against feminist expressions. By analyzing posts on Weibo using mixed methods, we describe the emerging discursive patterns around crime and gender, uncovering the gender-blind sexism that refutes feminist discourses on the social platform. We also highlight the critical hurdles facing grassroots feminist activism in Chinese cyberspace and propose implications for the design and research related to digital feminist activism.

New outlets of digital feminist activism in China: the #SeeFemaleWorkers campaign

ABSTRACT This article examines the #SeeFemaleWorkers campaign in China, which has been one of the most influential digital feminist movements in recent years despite the patriarchal and repressive political environment in the country. The campaign not only achieved its initial goal of raising the media visibility of female health workers fighting the pandemic, but also drew public attention to the unseen contributions of female workers in all walks of life. By analysing the narrative themes and frequency of the randomly selected original posts, this study identified thematic categories to conceptualise themes of participation. Subsequently, we suggest that the intersectional nature of the campaign was an important factor in its success as it enabled women from different backgrounds to come together and discuss discrimination in the workplace. We also found that the campaign managed to evade misogynistic antagonism by avoiding polarising labels. Finally, we suggest that the reuse of socially established hashtags can be beneficial for conducting follow-up activities and sustaining the influence of the original campaign. However, the study also highlights the potential risks posed by censorship and surveillance in China, which can hinder the development and success of digital feminist activism.

The womb as Battleground: negotiating motherhood and feminism on Chinese Social Media

ABSTRACT This article conducts a feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) of a widely debated occurrence within the Chinese public sphere, where a mother’s decision to accompany her six-year-old son into a female restroom ignited substantial discourse. Employing FCDA to interrogate postings on Zhihu, China’s preeminent question-and-answer platform, the research navigates the discursive construction of motherhood intertwined with the prominence of digital feminist narratives. It engenders a bifold analytic perspective by interweaving “digital feminism” with “C-fem,” a conceptual representation that integrates the entrepreneurial and dissenting elements of feminism within China’s unique socio-cultural matrix. Facilitated by FCDA, the study disentangles three salient discursive trajectories that forefront challenges to entrenched patriarchal paradigms. The emergent strands encompass discourses oscillating between lauded and scrutinized maternal figures, contending perspectives on sexuality education, and forceful rebuttals to gendered childbearing expectations. Collectively, these narratives contribute to a multilayered critique of normative gender constructs and signal a fortified agency of Chinese women in digital feminist praxes. Despite the pressures of traditional gender ideologies and state censorship, the study uncovers the burgeoning assertiveness of Chinese digital feminists, particularly within the non-cooperative C-fem contingent, who increasingly call for transformative societal change. This study not only highlights Chinese women’s negotiation with gender identities in the digital realm but also enriches the global discourse on feminism’s adaptation and resistance in authoritarian contexts.

Digital Feminist Placemaking: The Case of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” Movement

Throughout Iran and various countries, the recent calls of the “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi” (in Persian), “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” (in Kurdish), or “Woman, Life, Freedom” (in English) movement call for change to acknowledge the importance of women. While these feminist protests and demonstrations have been met with brutality, systematic oppression, and internet blackouts within Iran, they have captured significant social media attention and coverage outside the country, especially among the Iranian diaspora and various international organizations. This article, grounded in feminist urban theories of the Global South, analyzes the digital feminist placemaking movement in Iran. As the first counter-revolution led by women, the movement utilizes digital art, graffiti, and protest movements to embody women’s solidarity groups and sympathy rallies. Our analysis employs various digital research methods, including social media scrutiny and the study of protest illustrations. Analyzing the digital feminist placemaking in Iran will enable us to compare the commonalities, differences, challenges, and opportunities between the minorities and majorities in the world’s countries. The outcomes of this research can help international organizations such as Amnesty International and the United Nations Agency for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women), as well as policymakers, institutions, academics, and NGOs, to highlight the various ways in which broader public participation could be encouraged in the process of digital feminist insurgent placemaking.

#STOPMENSTRUALSHAMING: XIAOHONGSHU USERS’ ONLINE ADVOCACY FOR WOMEN’S ISSUES IN CHINA

This paper investigates how social media users advocate for women's issues in China, focusing on the activism against menstrual shaming on the social media platform Xiaohongshu, a culturally significant but understudied platform used primarily by women. With women accounting for 90.41% of active users, Xiaohongshu provides a unique social media environment that shapes the way users engage with feminist issues. However, despite the growing literature on digital feminism in China and the surging popularity and significance of Xiaohongshu in the Chinese social media ecosystem, no studies so far have examined the feminist activism on this platform. Our study contributes to this gap by exploring the discourse around menstrual shaming on Xiaohongshu, as a lens into the dynamics of activism on this female-oriented platform. Analyzing 329 posts and 10,336 comments under the hashtag #StopMenstrualShaming on Xiaohongshu, our study foregrounds the salient role of Xiaohongshu in helping women express their feminist values in an online space that they perceive as safe and intimate. In doing so, we employ the conceptual framework of hashtag activism, which refers to the development and spread of online activism with tangible results in the physical and digital worlds. Shining a spotlight on this significant but understudied platform, we illuminate the dynamics of Chinese digital feminism, especially the formation of solidarity, relatability and collective identity on a female-oriented social media platform.

#AVERAGEYETCONFIDENTMEN: CHINESE STAND-UP COMEDY AND FEMINIST DISCOURSE ON DOUYIN

With the rise of feminist sentiment and the growing awareness of gender equity in China, social media has become an increasingly central space for Chinese feminist expression. However, the complex dynamics of feminist expression in these online spaces—and the role of popular culture in facilitating such discourse—are still to be fully elucidated. Here, focusing on the understudied social media platform Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), we analyze the online discussion sparked by the stand-up comedy acts of Chinese female comedians. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of Douyin videos and related comments, we demonstrate how users employed the platform’s creative features to challenge everyday sexism by echoing or building upon the stand-up comedians’ gags. At the same time, the analysis also uncovers how Douyin is used to insult and push back against these feminist voices. Our findings shed light on the sophisticated role of Douyin as a platform for digital feminist expression, and the ways in which it can amplify both feminist discourse or, conversely, give voice to misogynistic attacks.

From Cinderella to i-woman: Web novels, fandom, and feminist politics in China

i-Woman is a new genre of female-oriented web novel that emerged in China after 2020. By intentionally reversing the Cinderella story pattern of the classic romance, the i-woman genre and its feminist fans challenge patriarchal discourse and explore a new feminist way of writing. More than just a fandom of a popular literature form, i-woman is also a feminist mobilization strategy in contemporary Chinese online feminist activism. A textual analysis of i-woman novels and a digital ethnography of its communities suggests that by incorporating separatist feminist ideologies into novels and trying to build solidarity in fandom communities, digital feminists are conducting feminist activism in the form of fantagonism. Building an ideal feminist solidarity is performed as an exclusion of certain types of novel genres and their readers. Operating feminism through fandom opens new online spaces for feminist activists while affecting and restricting its operation. This developing fandom form shows potential for fandom culture to turn into political participation and offers insights into how to operate digital feminism in contemporary China.