The Change Of Prevalent Symbols Of Male Images In Sina Weibo(2012-2018)

From "Diao Si"(plebs)to "Warm Men" and "Little Fresh Meat"(handsome young boys),from "Straight Men" and "Scum Men" to "Little Tits",there are different prevailing symbols to describe male images at different periods of China.These symbols were communicated in an open and free social network space,with their semantic connotation constantly being enriched,changed and extended.Based on this social phenomenon,the research is conducted under the guidance of discourse theory and is based on Norman Fairclough's triple analysis framework of discourse.This paper combines social gender theory and masculinity theory to conduct text interpretation,discourse analysis male image symbols as well as social practice in different periods of China.First of all,this research uses a questionnaire to conduct an exploratory research,collecting prevalent symbols of male image that are well-known among the public in recent years,then combining and reorganizing them with data from a public database.The six representative symbols of male image,“Diao Si”,“Warm Men”,“Little Tits”,“Straight Men”,“Scum Men”,and “Little Puppies”,are divided in four stages from the dimension of transmission volume.Secondly,with the help of Python technology,a corpus is built based on the data collected from about 28,500 popular Weibo articles,which is followed by a basic analysis on word frequency and topic words.The corpus analysis method is used to analyze the relevant texts,and the semantic network analysis method is used to visually present,and then the connotation and extension of each symbol are interpreted.Finally,the core characteristics and development rules of symbol changes are summarized,and their discourse composition and social practice are excavated.The study found that in recent years,in the context of Sina Weibo,male masculine symbols produced an overall evolutionary characteristic of the fusion of traditional hegemonism and the development of diversified masculinity in theproduction of masculine symbols.In the distribution of symbols,they were subject to feminist power operations Fundamental containment of traditional gender concepts.The consumption of symbols is the result of the promotion of market discourse and the control of technical institutions.This process of change reflects to a certain extent the shift of democratization,commodification and technology in China's gender discourse.In the contradictory development of traditional interrogation and modernization,the gender order is developing in a more orderly and equal direction.Inspired by research,the change of discourse under the representation of network symbols not only reflects the change of society,but also constructs the development of society.