The Dissolution of Dissent: The Depoliticization of Feminism from Cyberspace to Private Sphere in China

This study examines the depoliticization of feminist discourse in China, particularly as it transitions from digital activism to private, intimate relationships. Drawing on Rancière’s theoretical framework of politics, police, and the distribution of the sensible, the research explores how feminist discourse, initially disruptive in digital spaces, is systematically neutralized through ideological reframing, emotional labor, and platform-mediated containment. Based on qualitative interviews with 35 Chinese individuals engaged in feminist and anti-feminist discourse across social media platforms, the study identifies a two-tier process of depoliticization. First, feminist discourse is politicized in the public sphere through nationalist and anti-feminist rhetoric that frames feminism as a foreign, morally suspect ideology, and embeds it into the existing, inherently unequal political discourse framework, as to subsequently deprive it of the legitimacy of mobilization. After that, as the feminist challenge of inequality moves into the private sphere, it is individualized, reframed as a personal relationship issue rather than a structural critique, and absorbed into everyday emotional negotiations, thereby sustaining existing gender norms. The study also demonstrates how digital platforms facilitate this process through algorithmic segregation, commodification of feminist discourse, and the ephemeral nature of viral debates. Ultimately, the research reveals how modern authoritarian systems manage ideological dissent not through outright suppression, but through strategic containment and absorption, ensuring that feminism remains visible yet politically inert. This study contributes to feminist media studies, digital platform research, and contemporary discussions on ideological control by illustrating how depoliticization operates at the nexus of digital culture, nationalist discourse, and intimate relationships in contemporary China.