Empowering middle-aged women? A discourse analysis of gendered ageing in the Chinese television reality show sisters who make waves

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dc.citation.volumeLatest Articles
dc.contributor.authorZhang X
dc.contributor.authorRiley S
dc.date.accessioned2024-06-25T02:52:40Z
dc.date.available2024-06-25T02:52:40Z
dc.date.issued2024-01-23
dc.description.abstractSisters Who Make Waves is a popular Chinese reality show that affirmatively centres “middle-aged” women. Given its popularity and positive framing, the show has significant potential to shape Chinese discourses of gendered aging. To examine this potential, we performed a discourse analysis on Season 2 of Sisters Who Make Waves, identifying its discursive constructions of gendered aging; the subject positions within these discourses; and the rhetorical strategies interpellating the viewer to identify with these subject positions. Three discourses were evident: (1) “age is a problem for women” (an account articulated only to be refuted), (2) “age is a problem only if you let it;” and (3) “hyper resilience” (an expectation of psychological resilience in the face of severe challenges). Reading this analysis through the lens of a postfeminist sensibility, we show how the affirmative potential of Sisters Who Make Waves is undercut with the show’s entanglement of empowerment with regulation and synergies between postfeminist feeling rules and Chinese state ideology of Positive Energy 正能量.
dc.description.confidentialfalse
dc.edition.edition2024
dc.format.pagination1-17
dc.identifier.citationZhang X, Riley S. (2024). Empowering middle-aged women? A discourse analysis of gendered ageing in the Chinese television reality show sisters who make waves. Feminist Media Studies. Latest Articles. (pp. 1-17).
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/14680777.2023.2297170
dc.identifier.eissn1471-5902
dc.identifier.elements-typejournal-article
dc.identifier.issn1468-0777
dc.identifier.urihttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/69996
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherTaylor and Francis Group
dc.publisher.urihttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2023.2297170
dc.relation.isPartOfFeminist Media Studies
dc.rights(c) 2024 The Author/s
dc.rightsCC BY-NC-ND 4.0
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectPostfeminism
dc.subjectChina
dc.subjectaging
dc.subjectwomen
dc.subjecttelevision
dc.titleEmpowering middle-aged women? A discourse analysis of gendered ageing in the Chinese television reality show sisters who make waves
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.elements-id486369
pubs.organisational-groupOther
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