Rewriting singlehood: Counter-normative performativity and identity negotiation of voluntarily single women on Chinese social media

This paper explores how women who choose to remain unmarried utilize the digital platform Xiaohongshu to negotiate voluntary singlehood in the face of gendered expectations surrounding marriage in contemporary China. Drawing on Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, the paper introduces the concept of “counter-normative performativity” to describe a spectrum of practices through which voluntarily single women recognize, negotiate, and reconfigure the gender order. Through qualitative content analysis of user-generated posts on Xiaohongshu, this study identifies three featured yet overlapping types: disruptive, ambivalent, and constrained performativity. Although these performances demonstrate women's agency and a growing critique of the marital institution, they remain entangled with social accountability and platform capitalism. By framing voluntary singlehood as an entry point, this paper contributes to scholarship on gendered self-representation and the sociocultural transformations of intimacy in contemporary China.