![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
With much silence around menstruation, certain superstitions and beliefs still prevail in Confucian East Asian cultures such as China. As a result, domestic tampon brands did not appear until 2016. This study examines the promotion posts of tampons that are new to Chinese females on We Media channels. Specifically, a content analysis was conducted on the frames used in these promotion posts composed by different types of public accounts, guided by the intersectional perspective. Besides the commonly used generic frames, the issue-specific frames reflected how public accounts symbolized the use of the product. More than half of the promotion posts focused on the health benefits of tampons, and about a quarter portrayed them as being trendy. Despite their relative small amounts, the care and independence frames were also worth further attention, considering that contemporary Chinese society is increasingly normalizing gender equality and females’ economic independence. While a spectrum of values and ideas co-exist, these posts reflect the gender equality wave of the current kaleidoscopic Chinese society.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Yi Mou
Yi Mou (Ph.D., University of Connecticut) is Special Researcher at the School of Media & Communication in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her research interests include new media studies, human–machine communication and health communication, such as employing new media tools to achieve health preventive objectives and investigating the effects of social cues of machines in interacting with humans.
Zichun Yin
Zichun Yin ([email protected]) and Jiayi Wang ([email protected]) are currently studying as undergraduate students at the School of Media & Communication in Shanghai Jiao Tong University.