Constructed Hegemonic Femininity in the Realm of China’s E-commerce: A Case Study of Singles’ Day Sale

This extended essay explores the construction of hegemonic femininity in the realm of Chinese e-commerce through a case study of the biggest online shopping festival in the world, the Singles’ Day Sale. It first outlines the post-2008 global political economic contexts that have given rise to the explosion of e-commerce as a platform for the promotion of domestic consumption in China. Then, it uses the methodology of multimodal discourse analysis to reveal how the images used to promote the Singles Day Sale construct consumption as a defining feature of hegemonic femininity in contemporary China. Finally, it examines the possible implications of this process for the status of Chinese women. The conclusion critiques how the collusion between patriarchy and capitalism has provided Chinese women with the sugar-coasted bullet of consumerism and unveils how this privileging of the consumption role of Chinese women conceals their productive role in society.