Ambivalent desiring subjects

Young women, agency and post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities in China

Bibliographic Data

ID4863219
AuthorsLonglong Ge (0000-0003-1519-455X, Social Research Institute, University College London, UK, corresponding author)
Year2025
Publication date2025-04-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/14647001251334949
OpenAlexW4409972816
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited67

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

Ambivalence · China · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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