'Home-wreckers and their bastards must be partying in the sewer': discourses of wifeist antifeminism

This article centers on the pronounced misogynistic discourses in Chinese cyberspace. Based on online observation of national debates that revolved around the feminist proposal of removing the marriage restriction on birth registration in an attempt to restore real reproductive rights to women and extend social welfare coverage to unwed mothers, this paper identifies the tripartite misogynistic forces from wives, wives-to-be, and wives-seeking lower-class men, who respectively weaponized the feudal DiShu system, defended the Caili (bride price) convention, and redirected disaffections of class exclusion and marriage squeeze towards women. By terming the three strands of antifeminist sentiments as wifeism, the article points out that the upholding of the heteropatriarchal marriage institution is actualized at the cost of vilifying women indiscriminately, oversimplifying the complexity of unwed childbirths, and precluding the possibility of nonheterosexuality. The interpretation of such wifeist antifeminism should be contextualized in the gendered structure of power in post-socialist China, where the framework of Confucian ethics persists and gender essentialism is rejuvenated and celebrated . Crucially, given the plunging birth rate in China, the proposal itself serves as a tool to mitigate the shrinking workforce and ageing population as it serves as a wellbeing promoter and equality deliverer.

Automated summary

This article focuses on the prominent misogynistic discourse in Chinese cyberspace. Through online observations of debates surrounding feminist proposals, it identifies three misogynistic forces: married women, future brides, and lower-class men seeking wives. Each group opposes women's rights proposals in their own way. The article argues that upholding the patriarchal marriage institution comes at the cost of vilifying women, oversimplifying issues with unwed childbirth, and dismissing non-heterosexuality.