Frontiers of Discourse Studies
FDS, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2026, pp. 1-23.
Print ISSN: 3106-809X; Online ISSN: 3106-8103
Journal homepage: https://www.fdsjournal.com
DOI：Https://doi.org/10.64058/fds260101ceafb
Calculated Empowerment: Algorithmic Feminism and Big Girl Performance in China
Li Yun
Abstract: Since 2014, streaming platforms have gradually taken over the production and promotion of costume “Big Girl” dramas in China, a genre centered on female protagonists and explicitly targeting female audiences. By leveraging the dynamic interplay between algorithms and the emotional consumption of female audiences, these platforms have produced ever-evolving representations of “female subjectivity,” which creates an illusion of “subjectivity” among female viewers. Through a critical examination of the production history of these dramas and a close analysis of the emotional consumption, narrative empowerment, and gender performance embedded within them, this article argues that “algorithmic feminism” is in fact an instrumentalization of female subjective desire by platform capital. On‑screen, it uses algorithmic calculation to produce “Big Girl” figures that cater to female viewers’ horizons of expectation, translating individualistic feminist discourse into consumable “pleasure points” to harvest their “emotional price.” Off‑screen, through the dynamic mutual learning and co‑performance between platform algorithms and audience emotional expression, it not only produces and reinforces new norms of gender representation but also, in a paradoxical form of “empowerment,” absorbs the subjective desires of modern urban women into the operational logic of digital capitalism.
Keywords: Algorithmic feminism; Platform capitalism; Chinese Big Girl drama; Performance; Instrumentalization; Female subjectivity; Emotional consumption; Procedural drama production
Author Biography: Li Yun, Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers of Discourse Studies, Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, South China University of Technology. Her research focuses on contemporary literary and cultural criticism. E-mail: flly@scut.edu.cn
题目：计算的赋权：算法女权主义与大女主表演
摘要：从2014年开始，流媒体平台逐渐接管古装大女主剧的制作与宣推，借助算法与观众情绪消费的动态互动，生产了不断迭代的“女性主体”再现，也让女性观众产生“主体”幻觉。然而，本文通过回顾大女主剧的生产历史，批判地审视其中的情感消费、叙事赋权与性别表演，指出“算法女权主义”实质是平台资本对女性观众主体欲望的工具化利用。在屏幕内，它通过算法的精确计算，生产“迎合”女性观众期待视域的“大女主”，将个人主义女权主义话语转译为可供消费的“爽点”文本，以收割观众的“情绪价格”；在屏幕外，则通过平台算法与观众情绪表达之间动态的相互学习、共同表演，不仅生产并固化了新的性别再现规范，更通过悖论性的“赋权”，将现代都市女性的主体欲望收编入数字资本的运行逻辑之中。
关键词：算法女权主义；平台资本主义；大女主；表演
作者简介：李昀，《话语研究前沿》主编，华南理工大学外国语学院教授，研究方向：文学、文化批评研究。电邮：flly@scut.edu.cn
Received: 28 April 2026 / Revised: 3 Jun 2026 / Accepted: 09 Jun 2026 / Published online: 15 Jun 2026 / Print published: 30 Jun 2026
