Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Producing Feminist Health Knowledge from Below: A Case Study of Visual Framing, Situated Experience, and Audience Engagement in Pause in Dialogue on Xiaohongshu

He, Xiangwen LU (2025) MKVM13 20251
Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
Abstract (Swedish)
This study investigates how feminist health discourse is collaboratively produced on
Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform known for its female-dominated user base and stringent censorship environment. Focusing on the account Pause in Dialogue, the thesis explores how stigmatized topics such as menstruation, sexual health, and bodily discomfort are reframed through multimodal strategies and peer engagement. Drawing on feminist standpoint theory, framing theory, intersectionality, and the concept of decentralized expert systems, the study analyzes both content and audience engagement to understand how knowledge is generated, shared, and negotiated in a digitally space. Methodologically, drawing on Barthes’s tripartite model of... (More)
This study investigates how feminist health discourse is collaboratively produced on
Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform known for its female-dominated user base and stringent censorship environment. Focusing on the account Pause in Dialogue, the thesis explores how stigmatized topics such as menstruation, sexual health, and bodily discomfort are reframed through multimodal strategies and peer engagement. Drawing on feminist standpoint theory, framing theory, intersectionality, and the concept of decentralized expert systems, the study analyzes both content and audience engagement to understand how knowledge is generated, shared, and negotiated in a digitally space. Methodologically, drawing on Barthes’s tripartite model of visual semiotics, the research combines visual semiotic analysis of 10 selected videos and qualitative coding of high-engagement user comments (n=500). The findings show that Pause in Dialogue uses accessible language, symbolic metaphors, and visual exaggeration to reframe taboo topics as emotionally resonant and culturally familiar. Audience engagement further reveal diverse forms of discursive co-production. Users not only express emotions but also reflect and critique on structural issues such as period poverty and pink tax. This study contributes to feminist media and health communication studies by demonstrating how digital platforms can foster alternative, situated forms of health knowledge. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
He, Xiangwen LU
supervisor
organization
course
MKVM13 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Feminist health communication, Knowledge production, Discourse, Situated knowledge, Audience engagement, Visual semiotics, Decentralized expert systems, Xiaohongshu, Menstrual stigma
language
English
id
9188659
date added to LUP
2025-07-04 08:19:41
date last changed
2025-07-04 08:19:41
@misc{9188659,
  abstract     = {{This study investigates how feminist health discourse is collaboratively produced on
Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform known for its female-dominated user base and stringent censorship environment. Focusing on the account Pause in Dialogue, the thesis explores how stigmatized topics such as menstruation, sexual health, and bodily discomfort are reframed through multimodal strategies and peer engagement. Drawing on feminist standpoint theory, framing theory, intersectionality, and the concept of decentralized expert systems, the study analyzes both content and audience engagement to understand how knowledge is generated, shared, and negotiated in a digitally space. Methodologically, drawing on Barthes’s tripartite model of visual semiotics, the research combines visual semiotic analysis of 10 selected videos and qualitative coding of high-engagement user comments (n=500). The findings show that Pause in Dialogue uses accessible language, symbolic metaphors, and visual exaggeration to reframe taboo topics as emotionally resonant and culturally familiar. Audience engagement further reveal diverse forms of discursive co-production. Users not only express emotions but also reflect and critique on structural issues such as period poverty and pink tax. This study contributes to feminist media and health communication studies by demonstrating how digital platforms can foster alternative, situated forms of health knowledge.}},
  author       = {{He, Xiangwen}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Producing Feminist Health Knowledge from Below: A Case Study of Visual Framing, Situated Experience, and Audience Engagement in Pause in Dialogue on Xiaohongshu}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}