“Unbleeding is unwoman?”: the self-construction and identity recognition of menopausal women on Chinese social media

As China’s population ages, an increasing number of women are entering menopause, confronting physical and emotional transitions alongside shifting recognition of gender identity. This study employs FCDA to explore how menopausal women in China construct and negotiate self-identity on social media. Based on 246 posts from Xiaohongshu and semi-structured interviews with 15 female users, the study identifies three dominant discursive patterns: (1) identity anxiety shaped by medicalized ageism, sociocultural norms, and policy ambivalence; (2) identity marginalization sustained by Confucian cultural ideals of motherhood and wifedom; (3) identity resistance negotiating visibility within a consumerist and patriarchal platform environment. Findings show that while social media provides a crucial space for expression, it simultaneously reproduces gendered and ageist norms through algorithmic governance and consumerist narratives of successful aging. Therefore, menopausal women’s identity recognition emerges as a negotiated and ambivalent process in which aspirations for expression coexist with structural limitations. This research contributes to broader discussions on gender, aging, and digital media, and calls for greater societal recognition of menopause as a legitimate life stage.