Making Gender Crises: State Newspapers and the Regulation of Gender Nonconformity in China

Abstract

Abstract Media coverage about transgender and gender nonconforming people both maintains and influences normative ideas about sex, gender, and sexuality. However, how state propaganda apparatus reifies these ideas through media and contributes to gender regulations remains underexplored, especially for state-dominated media systems. To bridge this gap, this article examines the media framing of gender nonconformity in China through a content analysis of 154 state-run newspaper articles from 1980 to 2021. Our analysis reveals that state newspapers introduce gender nonconformity into the purview of governance through two processes: 1) By pushing medicalized and socialization explanations for gender nonconformity, state newspapers consolidated two categories of gender nonconformity—intersex/transgender people and gender nonconforming youth. 2) State newspapers have developed two “gender crisis” frames that positioned the management of gender nonconformity at the heart of state governance and national development. Through this, gender nonconformity becomes legible for state institutions in criminal justice, medicine, marriage, education, and media. The findings contribute to the literature on media maintenance of the sex/gender/sexuality system by demonstrating the productive power of state-run media in shaping knowledge, discourse, and the regulation of gender nonconformity.