SWim-ming Against the Mainstream: Chinese Women’s Ambivalent Shipping of National Athletes in Boy’s Love Fandom

This article examines the ambivalent cultural practices of young Chinese female fans of Boys’ Love (BL) real-person shipping, using the “SWim” pairing of two national male swimmers as a case study. Drawing on Butler’s theories of gender performativity and Ge’s “post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities,” this research explores how these fans negotiate, challenge and reinforce dominant gender norms. Semi-structured interviews and online observation were conducted and analysed through thematic and critical discourse analysis, leading to the categorisation of the study into four primary themes: “Queering masculinity through fan language” “Sexualising the male body” “Guilty pleasure” and “subculture at the boundaries of acceptability.” The analysis explores how fans subvert gender binaries while reinscribing patriarchal hierarchies; how fans claim an active spectator position to sexualise the male body, appropriating postfeminist logic in a “gendered mirror;” and how fans negotiate their “guilty pleasure” through internal strategies and their taboo subcultural status through external “juxtapolitical” practices. Ultimately, this study argues that these female shipping fan practices exemplify the “post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities” of ambivalent desiring subjects, revealing the profound tensions between women’s agency, patriarchal structures and official discourse in contemporary China.