Postfeminist Aesthetics, Platformed Femininity, and the Politics of Replicable Girlhood of Chinese K-Pop Fandom

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of postfeminist aesthetics in Korean pop music through the cases of HyunA, Jennie and Wonyoung, placing their aesthetic images within the relationship between platform capitalism and digital fandom. Based on textual analysis, industry reports, and user-generated content (UGC) data from Chinese social media platforms, this study conceptualizes replicable girlhood as a mixture of brand endorsement, algorithmic visibility, and aesthetic governance. HyunA’s case demonstrates how Chinese fans modularized hypersexualized cuteness, localized the style, and achieved low-cost imitation. Jennie’s case shows how she deeply integrated her self-image with the endorsing brands through long-term partnerships, enhancing the shaping of her aspirational realness and femininity. Wonyoung embodies algorithmic girlhood and a replicable yet normatively restricted platformed femininity through her endorsement hierarchy and platform user behaviors. In these cases, empowerment is not a form of autonomy but rather compliance. The idols, platforms, brands, and fans jointly contribute to postfeminist aesthetics as both opportunity and discipline. This paper contributes to postfeminist media studies and sociology by specifying the mechanisms through which K-Pop aesthetics become a structuralized regulation, raising broad questions relating to postfeminist aesthetics, platformed femininity, and the politics of replicable girlhood about K-Pop fandom in China.