The anxiety over soft masculinity: a critical discourse analysis of the “prevention of feminisation of male teenagers” debate in the Chinese-language news media

Although the emergence of soft masculinity has incited much controversy in China, little research attention has been given to the discussion about the effeminate Chinese masculinity in the news media featuring public opinions at the national level. To fill this gap, this study employed critical discourse analysis to investigate the dominant discourses surrounding the “Prevention of Feminisation of Male Teenagers” debate and its ideological implications in the Chinese-language news media. The findings show that the media constructed anti-feminine discourse, nationalistic discourse, and anti-gender stereotype discourse with ideological implications for patriarchy, nationalism, and egalitarianism via various discursive strategies, specifically abstraction, authorisation, categorisation, morality, and rationalisation. This study sheds light on the diverse voices and concerns of the emergence of soft masculinity that have not been given much attention in the literature.