The platformization of misogyny: Popular media, gender politics, and misogyny in China’s state-market nexus

This study aims to map out the popular phenomenon of misogyny in the specific techno-social configuration buttressed by China’s state-market nexus. With a case study of a controversy involving the standup comedian Yang Li and the luxury car brand Mercedes-Benz on the microblogging platform Weibo, I highlight the ‘platformization of misogyny.’ The conceptualization refers to the way that a platform is evoked as tools to manufacture and amplify misogyny. Weibo has this effect both through its design, features, and algorithmic shaping of sociality and through its users’ appropriation of its affordances. On top of that, the platform also engenders a form of governance that is deeply enmeshed in the commercialization of internet opinion, suggesting a techno-nationalist mode of state control that is exercised from afar and deeply imbued with patriarchal and misogynistic characteristics.

Sara Liao, The platformization of misogyny: Popular media, gender politics, and misogyny in China’s state-market nexus, Media Culture & Society (46, 1) pp. 191-203. Copyright © 2023. DOI: 10.1177/01634437221146905. Users who receive access to an article through a repository are reminded that the article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users may also download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference. For permission to reuse an article, please follow our Process for Requesting Permission.

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Work Title The platformization of misogyny: Popular media, gender politics, and misogyny in China’s state-market nexus
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Open Access
Creators
  1. Sara Liao
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
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  1. Media, Culture and Society
Publication Date January 1, 2023
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  1. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221146905
Deposited January 23, 2025

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