When Birth Goes Public: Childbirth Vlogs on Bilibili and Gendered Responses.

Abstract

Inadequate reproductive health-related information remains a key driver of tokophobia. Video-based social media platforms and nonprofessional content creators are crucial in disseminating embodied and narrative reproductive knowledge in China. Yet, less is known about how viewers, especially men, respond to representations of the laboring body. Drawing on gender schema theory, this study employs structural topic modeling to analyze 36,486 public comments on childbirth vlogs from Bilibili, identifying four overarching themes across 16 topics: (1) General Blessings, (2) Community Support, (3) Childbirth Insights, and (4) Praise of Motherhood. An examination of gendered patterns in emergent topics revealed that female viewers were more likely to share blessings and provide community support that challenged cultural silence surrounding childbirth, whereas male viewers more frequently engaged with discussions on risk perception and decision-making. Further qualitative textual analysis indicated that while informational engagement predominated across genders, gendered divergences in risk perception, decision-making frameworks, and modes of engagement revealed a bifurcated interpretive architecture in which embodied knowing and provider-oriented reasoning constituted distinct orientations toward reproductive content. By investigating a domain long governed by cultural silence and medical authority, this study reveals how lay narratives act as counter-hegemonic interventions, destabilizing established gender norms and illuminating the sociocultural structures underpinning childbirth knowledge.