Mediated Intra‐gender Moral Competition and Affective Dynamics in Chinese DigitalFeminism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33152/jmphss-10.3.9Keywords:
Chinese digital feminism, mediated intrasexual competition, emotional politics, platform governance, relational aggressionAbstract
The digital feminism in China has developed in a platform environment shaped by state regulation, commercialisation, algorithmic visibility, and diverse feminist positions. Existing research has documented both solidarity and conflict within women’s and feminist communities, but it remains unclear when differences within feminism become comparative moral evaluations that contribute to persistent intra‐gender division. This study integrates research on Chinese digital feminism, aiming to identify its recurring discourse patterns, examine the affective and relational dynamics within them, and explain under what conditions differences within the female population can be organised through comparative evaluations around feminist or gendered legitimacy. A critical narrative synthesis was conducted on a corpus of 42 peer‐reviewed studies published between 2016 and 2026. Following scoping‐review guidance for procedural transparency while retaining an interpretive analytical strategy, studies were coded using a structured study‐level matrix. Non‐exclusive coding identified discourse configurations, structural critique, solidarity, inward moral evaluation, exclusion, polarisation, and three operational conditions of mediated intra‐gender moral competition. Five overlapping configurations were identified: activist‐oriented feminism, lifestyle oriented feminism, market‐aligned feminism, boundary‐policing or delegitimating discourse, and coded feminism. Structural critique and solidarity or coalition‐building were more recurrent than inward moral evaluation, affective polarisation, or mediated intra‐gender moral competition. MIMC appeared only in a small subset of studies in which comparative evaluations of women or feminist positions were organised around relative feminist or gendered legitimacy and became publicly consequential through platformed circulation, exclusion, ridicule, or boundary enforcement. Chinese digital feminism should not be characterised as inherently divisive. Platform, regulatory, and market conditions can support solidarity, adaptation, commercialisation, exclusion, or conflict rather than producing a single outcome. This study conceptualises mediated intra‐gender moral competition as a conditional platform‐mediated mechanism through which feminist difference can become a comparative hierarchy among women, rather than as a general feature of digital feminist discourse.
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