Female Body Hair in Digital Spaces: A Qualitative Analysis of #ArmpitHairFreedom on Rednote

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how meanings of female body hair are constructed, negotiated, and contested within digital spaces in contemporary China, focusing on the #armpithairfreedom on Rednote. While existing research on body hair and digital feminism is largely grounded in Western contexts, this study addresses a critical gap by situating analysis within China’s culturally specific and platform-regulated environment. Drawing on a qualitative, social constructivist case study approach, the research analyzes 319 user comments collected from three highly engaged posts under the hashtag. Through a coding process, the study identifies key discursive patterns, emotional expressions, and participation logics that shape how female body hair is understood and debated. The findings demonstrate that body hair is mainly framed through hygiene discourse, aesthetic norms, and gendered expectations, often producing stigma and self-surveillance. At the same time, users actively contest these meanings through personal storytelling. However, even seemingly resistant discourses frequently reproduce disciplinary norms through post- feminist framings of “choice”. Furthermore, the study highlights the role of affective publics and digital storytelling in fostering community formation, while also showing how participation is shaped by platform affordances and constraints, including algorithmic visibility and censorship. In this context, small-scale acts such as commenting and tagging acquire political significance. Overall, this thesis contributes to feminist media studies by demonstrating how digital body politics are locally negotiated within constrained environments, where resistance and discipline operate simultaneously.