Algorithmic masculinities: Embodied labour and identity commodification in Chinese beauty short videos

This article investigates how male bodies in digital beauty culture in China are systematically transformed from subjects to commodified objects. I examine the construction mechanisms and alienation processes inherent in the commodification of masculine embodiment on short-form video platforms. Through a sequential mixed-methods design, I analyse 500 Douyin (TikTok China) videos from 50 male beauty content creators and conduct fifteen in-depth interviews. Content analysis reveals systematic commodification patterns, with 66 per cent of videos containing explicit commercial promotion and creators employing feminine linguistic markers achieving significantly higher engagement rates. Interview analysis identifies three primary alienation dimensions: identity fragmentation, content homogenization and inverse relationships between commercial success and creative satisfaction. Platform algorithms create disciplinary mechanisms that constrain authentic gender expression while appearing to democratize aesthetic representation. While male beauty content in China appears to challenge traditional gender boundaries, it ultimately reinforces capitalist commodity relations by generating systematic alienation, with particular implications for adolescent audiences who constitute primary consumers of this content. The strategic deployment of ‘hybrid masculinities’ demonstrates how apparent gender transgression serves to expand rather than eliminate patriarchal structures within digital consumer environments. My findings reveal that contemporary consumer culture’s promise of empowerment through consumption remains fundamentally illusory, extending patterns of commodification previously associated with female subjects to encompass masculine embodiment within algorithmic media systems.