China's Women Sex Bloggers and Dialogic Sexual Politics on the Chinese Internet

Abstract

Sexual politics on China’s internet entered a new age with the “Mu Zimei phenomenon” in 2003. With the publication of Mu Zimei’s sex diary and the controversy surrounding, millions of Chinese “netizens” became involved in a debate over sexual rights that involve a wide variety of claims and counter claims, including claims of freedom of expression, social progress, natural rights, property rights, women’s rights, rights of privacy, and community responsibilities. The cases of Mu Zimei and subsequent women bloggers point out how sexual rights discourse should be understood as an adversarial dialogue among a variety of social actors using a variety of discursive frameworks, a view consistent with a dialogic conception of sexual politics on the internet.1 (Manuscript received March 3, 2007; accepted for publication July 12, 2007)