Filters, algorithms, and the “imagination tax”: the dilemma of aesthetic self-objectification among Chinese young women on social media

Social media has transformed how Chinese women present themselves and provided templates for constructing self-identity; female users engage in self-representation by sharing photos, videos, and other content, and they form self-perceptions based on external feedback such as real-time interactions and virtual social engagement. This study employed semi-structured in-depth interviews with 23 Chinese female social media users aged 18-35 (20 of which were included in the final analysis), supplemented by non-participant observation across Little Red Book, Douyin, WeChat, and Weibo to examine platform recommendation logics and visual practices. Application of beautification tools and filters has increased on social media platforms, and the normalization of these technologies further alienates women's aesthetic subjectivity, rendering self-objectification a routine part of everyday practice; this imposes an "imaginary tax," that is, the expenditure of time, money, and effort to conform to dominant beauty ideals, and factors such as occupational background and frequency of social media use play a significant role in reinforcing aesthetic objectification by deepening self-surveillance and comparison among female users. Chinese young women should therefore recognize the disciplinary logic embedded in platform algorithms and visual mechanisms, and reconstruct a healthy model of self-identification based on subjectivity and intrinsic value.