How Lesbian Internet Celebrities Establish and Maintain Connection With the Audience: An Analysis of the Lesbian Internet Celebrity-Audience Relationship on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book)

This paper explores the connection between lesbian internet celebrities and their audiences. Under the circumstance of the burgeoning market on social media platforms in mainland China, I take Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), a social media platform that is permeated by female users as a study target. In addition, I use Manxue, Maxxxx, and Quanjiaofu as lesbian internet celebrities' examples. I examined whether previous studies shed light on the internet celebrity-audience relationship still suits lesbian internet celebrity-audience relationships. Considering that in the context of mainland China, homosexuals such as lesbians are not welcomed by mainstream media and undergo serious censorship when posting content on social media. This study invited 26 female users who identified themselves as lesbians or bisexuals to participate in online and offline interviews. Former studies centered on T-style (Tomboy style) fandom enlightened the direction of this study. Although the appearance of lesbian internet celebrities is evaluated by the audience when they make decisions if they will start to follow or not, the essential part which prolongs the connectedness between them and the lesbian internet celebrity is the genuine attitude they believe they are receiving from the internet celebrity. Similar life backgrounds such as being a sexual minority or outrageous performance might have a chance to win the glances of users when they scroll the screen. According to the interview results, sincere life sharing and self-disclose storytelling bring the two sides closer and cultivate intimacy and affinity which help to strengthen the bond between lesbian internet celebrities and audiences.