War on feminism: an analysis of metaphorical representations on Weibo

ABSTRACT

Social media has become a critical medium for disseminating key feminist ideas; however, negative representations of feminism have been observed on Chinese platforms. Metaphor analysis offers valuable insights into public perceptions and attitudes towards social issues, highlighting the role of metaphors in influencing reasoning and decision-making. This study delves into metaphors related to feminism on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging platform akin to Twitter. By analyzing 206,089 Weibo posts about feminism using established metaphor identification methods, six metaphorical categories were identified: War, business, illness, animal, religion, and other metaphors, with war metaphors being the most prevalent. Many of these metaphors carry negative implications, typically portraying feminism as irrational, exploitative, and disruptive to societal norms and values, leading to calls for its suppression. This study contributes to existing literature by highlighting the metaphorical framing of feminism on social media and offering novel insights into its evaluation within the Chinese context.

KEYWORDS:

• Feminism
• metaphor
• representation
• Chinese social media
• microblogging site
• Weibo

Acknowledgements

My gratitude goes to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their supportive guidance and insightful comments throughout the review process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).