Feminist Media Studies

lots of fascinating directions here—from aging and romance on tv to feminist hip-hop and TikTok femininities!

have you read or written something similar recently? drop your recs below 👇

🐱 “The platformization of socially constructed gender realities: the ‘Fat Cat incident’ (2024)”

by Thomas Whyke (contact), Aiqing Wang, Zhennuo Song, Zeyang Wang, & Yibo Fan

→ investigates how gender discourse circulates and is contested through Chinese social media platforms.

🎤 “Stacks and sirens: construction of race, femininity, and feminist agency in two Finnish rap music videos”

by Inka Rantakallio

→ a sharp take on how visual and sonic practices shape feminist agency in Finnish hip-hop.

🎀 “(Un)Girly girls: reimagining femininity on Japanese TikTok”

by Sonia Petrovic (@University of Melbourne)

→ analyzes how young women play with and resist girlish aesthetics through TikTok’s creative vernaculars.

📺 “Reality television dating with participants aged 65+: constructing empowered older women and ‘less than’ older men in Hotel Romance”

by Åsa Kroon (@Örebro University)

→ explores age, gender, and empowerment in later-life reality tv dating formats.

we wanted to share a few recent + upcoming articles to keep an eye out for 👀💡

a thread of interesting new work in gender, media, and platform studies....

A personal note: This paper was a long journey! We first submitted it in March 2023, and after a long and rigorous review process, it's finally seeing the light of day in September 2025. A testament to persistence! Huge thanks to the patient editors & reviewers at @femmediastudies.bsky.social

A huge thank you to everyone who submits their scholarship to FMS, to our incredible editorial team and reviewers, and to the readers who engage with feminist media research around the world. 💜 Your work and support make this journal thrive.

--2022 Q2: 182,078 downloads
--2023 Q2: 202,695 downloads
--2024 Q2: 223,374 downloads

📊 2025 is shaping up to be a big year for Feminist Media Studies! So far this year, our articles have been downloaded 467,837 times — and in Q2 alone, we reached 234,042 downloads, continuing our growth over the past several years:

Feminist Media Studies Volume 25, Issue 5 of Feminist Media Studies

Find my article on happy narratives in women's fashion publications in the latest issue of @femmediastudies.bsky.social alongside excellent research on media and gender from across the globe!
www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfms20/c...

🌍 These articles reflect the global scope and critical urgency of feminist media scholarship. Watch this space for publication announcements!

5️⃣ “Gender, Nation and Immigration: An Analysis of French Media About Female Reconstructive Surgeries”
✍️ Sarah Boisson
French media coverage of migrant women’s bodies reveals intersections of gender, race, and national identity in medical discourse.
📧 sarah.boisson@sciencespo.fr

4️⃣ “Rhetorical Strategies in the Speeches of Mrs. America”
✍️ Margarita Esther Sánchez Cuervo & Luisa Sánchez Rivas
A rhetorical analysis of Mrs. America and its portrayal of feminist debates. How is second-wave feminism reimagined on screen?
📧 margaritaesther.sanchez@ulpgc.es

3️⃣ “The Counterspeech Doctrine in Communicative Capitalism: An Intersectional Feminist Critique”
✍️ Heidi Kosonen
This article interrogates the limits of counterspeech theory in digital spheres dominated by capitalist logics. What’s at stake for feminist resistance?
📧 heidi.s.kosonen@jyu.fi

2️⃣ “Surveillance Media Technology and News Coverage of Stranger Violence Against Women in Australia”
✍️ Alex Bevan
How does media coverage of violence against women reinforce gendered fear through surveillance narratives? Bevan critically unpacks Australian news discourse.
📧 alouisebevan@gmail.com

1️⃣ “A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of Nepali Feminist Hashtag Movements on Social Media”
✍️ Som Nath Ghimire & Karna Rana
This article examines how Nepali feminist activists use hashtags to challenge patriarchy and mobilize collective voice in digital spaces.
📧 somnghimire@gmail.com

Coming soon in Feminist Media Studies: New research from around the world exploring how gender, media, and power collide. Here's a preview of the forthcoming articles and their authors 👇

I’ll reshare to help amplify your work! I’m so happy you’re here. Let’s build this together. 🌻

welcoming community of feminist media scholars, practitioners, and readers.

Interested in being featured? Have an idea to share? Reach out to me at steinkn@ucmail.uc.edu — and as always, keep tagging us and posting your FMS publications.

Our goal is to make our BlueSky space not just promotional, but relational—a place where folks can connect, share ideas, and celebrate each other’s work.

Whether you’re a longtime FMS author or new to the journal, we want to build a vibrant,

how special this community is.

With that spirit in mind, I want to hear from you as we grow our BlueSky presence:

— What kinds of posts, conversations, or spotlights would you like to see?
— Have you published with FMS and want to be featured?

FMS has consistently provided a platform for rigorous, creative, and community-accountable feminist work—ranging from academic articles to short commentaries and special sections that bring urgent conversations to light. As a contributor and editor, I’ve experienced firsthand

International Journal of Communication, and Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, among others.

💜 I’ve long admired Feminist Media Studies as a journal that uplifts intersectional, global, and justice-centered scholarship.

— I’m the author of the forthcoming book And How Does That Make You Feel? Theratainment and the Digital Commodification of Mental Health (under contract with UC Press)

— My work appears in Feminist Media Studies, Gender & Society

— I earned my PhD in Communication & Media Studies from the University of Illinois Chicago, with concentrations in Gender & Women’s Studies and Black Studies.

— My current research explores how media platforms shape & reflect culture—especially around wellness, representation, and digital labor.

A little about me:

— I’m an Assistant Professor of Communication in the Department of English & Communication at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College.

An update from Feminist Media Studies!

Hi everyone — I’m Dr. Krysten Stein (she/her), and I’ve had the joy of serving as the Social Media Editor for Feminist Media Studies since 2022. I’m thrilled to continue in this role as we grow our presence on BlueSky!

Seeking and surveilled: the effects of Tumblr’s sexual content ban on sugar babies’ posts Over the last decade, there has been an increase in concern about sugar arrangements, relationships in which sugar babies, typically young women, provide romantic companionship to sugar daddies, ty...

My article on the effects of Tumblr's sexual content ban on the digital sugar baby community is in the current issue of @femmediastudies.bsky.social! Read it for free here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/CCZMB...

We're so proud of the critical feminist media scholarship our authors, reviewers, and editors continue to produce. Thank you for making this possible!