Navigating Feminist Paradoxes: Chinese K-pop Fandoms and the Ideological Contestations of Lisa’s Crazy Horse Performance

• In Event: 50260 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 3: Gender, Sexuality, and Intimacy in Contemporary East Asian Contexts

Abstract

This study applies critical feminist theory to analyze ideological contestations within Chinese K-pop fandoms through the controversy surrounding Lisa’s Crazy Horse performance.

1. Subverting the "Eternal Virgin" Archetype—Patriarchal Expectations in Idol Culture
Lisa’s departure from the "白幼瘦" (white, young, thin) aesthetic disrupted K-pop’s construction of female idols as pure and demure (Jung 2020). Fans saw this shift as a betrayal of implicit fan-idol contracts. Interviewee O’s critique—"She’s sending the wrong message to young girls"—highlights the paradox of female fandom: while engaging with feminist rhetoric, fans still police women’s sexual agency.
This reaction aligns with Butler’s (1990) theory of gender performativity, exposing the moral panic provoked when female idols defy prescribed roles. Lisa’s case illustrates the dual burden of embodying both modernity and tradition in China’s globalizing culture.

2. Socialist Feminist Legacies and Moral Boundaries
The Maoist-era feminist model, which prioritized labor over sexuality (Wang 2017), shapes critiques of female celebrities. Interviewee Q’s distinction—"I wear mini skirts" vs. "strip shows damage her reputation"—reflects a moral hierarchy where consumerist self-expression is acceptable, but public sexual agency is condemned.
Comparisons to the 1951 film Sisters Stand Up, which critiques prostitution as capitalist exploitation, frame Lisa’s act as cultural betrayal. Socialist rhetoric is weaponized to resist perceived Western decadence, reinforcing nationalist and anti-imperialist narratives.

3. Neoliberal Empowerment or Capitalist Co-optation?

The controversy reveals three feminist critiques:
1.Structural Socialist Analysis: Interviewee S’s "Who profits from this?" echoes Fraser’s (2013) critique of neoliberal feminism’s depoliticized individualism. Lisa’s stratified nudity exemplifies capitalism’s commodification of female bodies (Federici 2018).
2.Postcolonial Feminist Reckoning: Lisa’s performance in a Parisian cabaret—a site of colonial exoticization—was framed as complicity in neocolonial visual economies (Spivak 1988, Zheng 2022).
3.Limits of Choice Feminism: The paradox of "freedom to be clothed" (Interviewee O) underscores neoliberal feminism’s failure to address structural inequities (Gill 2016).

Synthesis: Negotiating Feminist Paradoxes in Digital Space
The Lisa debate exposes Chinese digital feminism’s liminality between neoliberal individualism, socialist collectivism, and postcolonial resistance. This tripartite struggle complicates East-West binaries, positioning Chinese feminists as critical interlocutors who reinterpret global theories through localized lenses.

Author

• Aitong Li, University of Florida