Ge, Liang;
(2025)
Ambivalent desiring subjects: young women, agency and post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities in China.
Feminist Theory
10.1177/14647001251334949.
(In press).
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Abstract
In this article, I propose the novel concept of ‘post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities’, which is embodied in the experiences of the one-child generation of Chinese urban young women who live as ambivalent desiring subjects. Post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities denote women's recognition of and response to the gendered culture and regulations of heteropatriarchy in post-socialist China and transnational post-feminism. This conceptualisation of ambivalence does not follow a progressive or linear logic; indeed, post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities have inherited both forward and backward momentum. With reference to 50 female participants of danmei, Chinese male–male romances and/or erotica, I suggest that on the one hand these young women desire independence, while on the other hand their visualisation of femininity/masculinity and intimate relationships is ineluctably affected by the heteropatriarchy. Post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities are also embodied in these young women's deliberate distinction between an oppressive, backward-looking reality and a sustaining forward-facing fantasy. Notably, it is precisely such a reflexive recognition that grants these women transformative momentum towards an alternative future.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ambivalent desiring subjects: young women, agency and post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities in China |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/14647001251334949 |
| Publisher version: | https:// doi.org/10.1177/14647001251334949 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Ambivalence, Chinese young women, desires, post-feminism, post-socialism |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10207937 |
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