Doing it Like a Tomboy on Post-2010 Chinese TV

Abstract

Using examples drawn from post-2010 TV in mainland China, I explore tomboyish images as a sign that potentially subverts both traditional feminine ideals and heteronormative expectations for women. I show that contemporary mainland Chinese TV representations of tomboyism have often softened its subversive edge in a hetero-patriarchal-structured society with growing knowledge in feminist and queer cultures. Thus, while adult women’s embodiment of female masculinity might have been tolerated and even commercialized in post-2010 Chinese society and entertainment, there exists an uncomfortable disjuncture between the tomboyism on TV and certain T identities in the off-screen world.