Linking names with frames: the interplay of moral entities and moral frames in Chinese online gender debates

This study examines how moral-entity expansion in online gender debates is associated with the adoption of moral frames. Using a large-scale analysis of comments from three major gender-based violence incidents in China, we explore how different referential terms construct moral entities and relate to moral evaluations. Employing word embedding analysis, we quantified the semantic proximity between referential terms and moral axes. The results show that gender-specific terms align more closely with moral foundations, suggesting a broader, more polarised moral orientation. In contrast, gender-neutral terms primarily activate procedural evaluations, focusing on the roles of actors rather than their gender identities. This result suggests that entity expansion toward out-group members via GST broadens the scope of who is under moral consideration, while frames specify why and how that widened target should be judged, thereby leading to moralisation that is amplified in both its diversity and moral charge. This study contributes to the literature on moral expansiveness by providing discourse-level evidence of how moral boundaries are constructed. It also helps explain how the coupling of moral entities and moral frames leads to the moralisation of feminist discourse.