Chinese Contemporary Idealized Female Image under "Sister Culture"——Within a Case Analysis of "Love Myth"

Abstract

The 2021 female-directed film "Love Myth" has created many buzzwords and is regarded as a phenomenon-level work of current feminist films. This article takes the "Love Myth" as a case study. Through the deconstruction of the ideal female image in the film, it analyzes the development of the latest feminist image in the current Chinese popular industry under the influence of China's "sister culture" (After 2020, "sister" has become an idealized image in the hearts of Chinese middle-class women, representing that a middle-aged woman can still maintain beauty, fulfill her own career pursuits, and fulfill the social expectations of being a good mother and a virtuous wife). Through discourse research, it is demonstrated that the female images in the film present a mixed pseudo-feminist temperament. Behind its discourse are the narratives of post-feminism, neo-liberal feminism, and pop feminism based on China's unique social, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Although this female image presents the temperament of female empowerment, it does not touch any deep social structural problems in essence.