“Beauty Servitude” as a Contested Metaphor in Chinese Competitive Debate: An Invitational Rhetorical Case Study

Zhenwei Wang

doi:10.53941/sala.2026.100012

Abstract

This study examines how the contested metaphor “beauty servitude” (服美役, fu mei yi) is constructed and negotiated in a widely circulated Chinese competitive debate about women’s beauty practices. Rather than treating the debate as representative of contemporary Chinese public discourse, the study approaches it as a strategically polarized rhetorical case. Using qualitative rhetorical analysis supplemented by lexical frequency mapping, it compares how the affirmative and negative sides frame beauty in relation to agency, embodiment, discipline, gender asymmetry, and self-regulation. Drawing on invitational rhetoric as an analytical lens, the study finds that the competing framings distribute rhetorical openness unevenly. Agency-oriented discourse affirms women’s self-determination and experiential diversity but tends to background structural constraint, whereas structurally oriented discourse exposes gendered discipline but may compress heterogeneous embodied experiences into a more unified account of oppression. The study argues that “beauty servitude” functions in this debate as a contested metaphor that simultaneously opens and restricts interpretive possibilities.

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