Neoliberalism, feminist resistance, and the marketed self: A corpus-assisted critical feminist analysis of the childless cat lady phenomenon on Chinese social media

• Shows how the “childless cat lady” is constructed on Chinese social media. • Explains how platform features shape contested gender discourse online. • Reveals how neoliberal ideals recast structural limits as personal choice. • Shows how irony and self-mockery are used to resist digital gender stigma. • Combines corpus methods with feminist critical discourse analysis. This study explores the “childless cat lady” discourse on Chinese social media, a term used to stigmatize women who reject motherhood in favor of pet companionship. Far from neutral, this discourse reflects deeper ideological tensions around gender norms, reproductive expectations, and female autonomy. Using Corpus-Assisted Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (CA-FCDA), the study examines how patriarchal norms, neoliberal ideologies, and feminist resistance intersect in shaping non-maternal femininity. The findings reveal dominant discourses that frame motherhood as a moral duty, casting childless women as selfish or deviant, aligning with Confucian patriarchy that moralizes reproductive labor. In contrast, counter-discourses reappropriate the label to assert autonomy and critique heteronormative expectations, but often align with neoliberal logics of self-optimization, transforming feminist resistance into depoliticized lifestyle branding. The study contributes to mediated discourse research by showing how platform affordances and participatory practices shape gender ideologies. It emphasizes the need to understand how digital mediation influences the transmission, interpretation, and socio-political impact of gendered discourse.