eprintid: 10200882
rev_number: 6
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/20/08/82
datestamp: 2024-12-02 12:11:52
lastmod: 2024-12-02 12:11:52
status_changed: 2024-12-02 12:11:52
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Ge, Liang
title: Dual ambivalence: The Untamed Girls as a counterpublic
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B16
divisions: B14
divisions: J81
note: © The Author(s) 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
abstract: The male-male romance web series The Untamed reached a height of media interest in the summer of 2019 in China. Numerous Chinese young women were obsessed with the drama centred on the relationship between the two male protagonists, and many fan followers identified themselves as ‘ The Untamed Girls’. Through online observation of young female fans of the male-male romance web series, this study articulates how they were self-organised as a counterpublic and utilised strategic ways to negotiate with the party-state censorship. Drawing upon the conceptualisation of ‘ambivalence’, the study analyses a dual ambivalence in their collective actions. It is argued that The Untamed Girls’ participation as a popular feminist project is, however constantly intertwined with an assumption of heteronormativity and an internalised misogyny, where these seemingly empowered women are simultaneously reaffirming a heterosexual regulation of sexual desires and devaluing women when they celebrate the male-male romance embodied in such a drama series.
date: 2022-07
date_type: published
publisher: SAGE Publications
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01634437221104713
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 2339548
doi: 10.1177/01634437221104713
lyricists_name: Ge, Liang
lyricists_id: LGEXX78
actors_name: Ge, Liang
actors_id: LGEXX78
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Media, Culture & Society
volume: 44
number: 5
pagerange: 1021-1033
citation:        Ge, Liang;      (2022)    Dual ambivalence: The Untamed Girls as a counterpublic.                   Media, Culture & Society , 44  (5)   pp. 1021-1033.    10.1177/01634437221104713 <https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221104713>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200882/1/ge-2022-dual-ambivalence-the-untamed-girls-as-a-counterpublic-5.pdf