1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This dissertation examines marriage and sexuality in contemporary China through the lens of media and audience, with a specific focus on audience interpretations of the media discourse of ‘keeping a second wife’ (bao ernai).» (p. iii)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«[This study shows] that audiences are able to vigorously reject the media’s linkage between “keeping a second wife” and official corruption, whereas their responses to heteronomative and monogamous sexuality are diverse. Some of them complied with the media discourse while others expressed emerging ideas oppositional to the discourse. With the gender “common sense” proposed by the media, the audiences have shown greater adherence to the gender ideology in the media that emphasizes gendered roles determined by biological differences. Hence, this study demonstrates that the audience, to a certain extent, is active but restrained by structural factors. Active audience cannot be completely free. As we can see […], middle class women employed a lexicon derived from the modernity discourse (e.g. “love”, “feelings”) as they encountered it in other media resources to reject monogamous sexuality. In contrast, working class women utilize Maoist class ideology to defend a class identity that has been erased by post-Mao politics. The diversity of audience understandings results in different social-economic positions, such as class and generation.» (p. 239-240)