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Abstract

Danmei is an emerging internet subculture in China in which young females produce writings and art about homosexual males. Adopting a feminist approach to literary criticism and media culture, this study interprets the conceptualization and representation of gender, sexuality, and identity in the field of danmei through an analysis of the two special danmei narratives, the sex reverse genre and intersex genres. In the two types of narratives, the danmei community uses the character and plot as raw materials to manipulate the sexed body. I conduct a mix of qualitative methods including ethnographic observations of the media platform, interviews, and discourse analysis of literary texts and subcultural norms to understand how the danmei community perceives the dynamics between sex, gender, and sexuality. I propose that the danmei culture establishes the narrative framework and the participatory space that allow the community to form resistance, but the contents and structure paradoxically capitulate the paradigm of the gender binary and heteronormative discourses. The analysis focuses on the gendered description of womanhood in the fictional female bodies and the disappearance of gender/queer consciousness. My study sheds light on the implications of cyberculture from the perspective of gender/queer theory and media studies. My findings demonstrate how the discourses around sex, gender, and sexuality circulate among Chinese young women’s daily consumption of literature, visual images, and media messages.

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