Youni Nan: Feminist Neologism as A Response and Resistance to Sexism in Contemporary China

This study examined the Chinese internet neologism Youni Nan (literally meaning greasy men), analyzing its emergence and popularity as a form of feminist discursive activism to everyday sexism in contemporary China. Using netnography, this research collected data from three popular social media platforms—Weibo, Red, and Douyin—to explore how Youni Nan is adopted by female users to express their feminist perspectives.
The research findings showed that Youni Nan was created as a gender-biased, derogatory term to describe men’s undesirable behaviors. Despite its omnifarious manifestations, the core factor of Youni Nan is the patriarchal norms of male supremacy and female subordination. Youni Nan empowered women to name and resist the subtle and long-neglected gender microaggressions. The study further investigated female users’ cross-dressing imitations of Youni Nan on social media, a practice that deconstructs male supremacy through humor and irony, thus encouraging women to overcome the fears associated with gender-based microaggression. Additionally, the analysis addressed the emergence of the term Youni Nv (literally meaning greasy women), a counterpart term that reflects post-feminist contradictions. Through the case of @gu’s imitation videos of Youni Nv, this study illustrated how feminism and anti-feminist clash on social media and highlighted how post-feminism can lead to the backlash of feminist activism. Future research is recommended to explore how various feminist neologisms work as a whole to affect the gender politics in China.