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Feminism and patriarchy in Chinese online discussions of sexual harassment

Authors: Wang, Junyi;

Feminism and patriarchy in Chinese online discussions of sexual harassment

Abstract

Even though China has experienced the sexual revolution and promoted women’s right in marriage and workplace, the prevalence of sexual harassment indicates there is much more work to do for promoting women’s sexual rights. Motivated by the #Metoo movement in the Western society, Chinese sexual harassment victims used Weibo (similar to Twitter) to accuse sexual harassment predators. Their posts triggered lots of online debates about sexual harassment and feminism in China. In 25 July 2018, a rape allegation against the veteran journalist Zhang Wen was posted by a younger female law worked. Her posted prompted six other women to accuse Zhang Wen of sexual harassment. Their allegations against Zhang Wen triggered a huge number of online discussion about sexual harassment. This study asks what, if any, feminist views on sexual harassment are reflected in the online discussion on the Chinese social media Weibo? Previous studies mainly used content analysis to explore the online discussion about sexual harassment triggered by online feminist activism. These studies have found the misogynistic views and feminist views reflected in the comments. This study uses the feminist critical discourse analysis to elaborately explore how gender assumption and gender relations get reinforced and subverted through the online comments. Based on the 36 posts and 5234 comments related to the case of Zhang Wen, this study also finds the patriarchal views and feminists views coexists in the social media Weibo. Although the misogynistic views are present, social media is a safer and easier place for feminists to express their opinion, organize campaign for victims, and facilitate the consciousness for more women. Online feminist activism could still use social media to promote social change for women’s life.

Keywords

online feminist activism, School of Social Science, Weibo, sexual harassment, 4404 Development studies

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
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