diff --git a/django/utils/feedgenerator.py b/django/utils/feedgenerator.py
index 24b2d1d172e..50ede4dd219 100644
--- a/django/utils/feedgenerator.py
+++ b/django/utils/feedgenerator.py
@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@ class RssFeed(SyndicationFeed):
     content_type = 'application/rss+xml; charset=utf-8'
 
     def write(self, outfile, encoding):
-        handler = SimplerXMLGenerator(outfile, encoding)
+        handler = SimplerXMLGenerator(outfile, encoding, short_empty_elements=True)
         handler.startDocument()
         handler.startElement("rss", self.rss_attributes())
         handler.startElement("channel", self.root_attributes())
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ class Atom1Feed(SyndicationFeed):
     ns = "http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
 
     def write(self, outfile, encoding):
-        handler = SimplerXMLGenerator(outfile, encoding)
+        handler = SimplerXMLGenerator(outfile, encoding, short_empty_elements=True)
         handler.startDocument()
         handler.startElement('feed', self.root_attributes())
         self.add_root_elements(handler)
diff --git a/docs/releases/4.0.txt b/docs/releases/4.0.txt
index 4767bdf7bfb..aa82afa4a51 100644
--- a/docs/releases/4.0.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/4.0.txt
@@ -432,6 +432,10 @@ Miscellaneous
 * The ``object`` argument of undocumented ``ModelAdmin.log_addition()``,
   ``log_change()``, and ``log_deletion()`` methods is renamed to ``obj``.
 
+* :class:`~django.utils.feedgenerator.RssFeed`,
+  :class:`~django.utils.feedgenerator.Atom1Feed`, and their subclasses now
+  emit elements with no content as self-closing tags.
+
 .. _deprecated-features-4.0:
 
 Features deprecated in 4.0
diff --git a/tests/syndication_tests/tests.py b/tests/syndication_tests/tests.py
index 6c4fe075063..5a668911f55 100644
--- a/tests/syndication_tests/tests.py
+++ b/tests/syndication_tests/tests.py
@@ -7,7 +7,9 @@ from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
 from django.test import TestCase, override_settings
 from django.test.utils import requires_tz_support
 from django.utils import timezone
-from django.utils.feedgenerator import rfc2822_date, rfc3339_date
+from django.utils.feedgenerator import (
+    Atom1Feed, Rss201rev2Feed, rfc2822_date, rfc3339_date,
+)
 
 from .models import Article, Entry
 
@@ -420,6 +422,22 @@ class SyndicationFeedTest(FeedTestCase):
         published = doc.getElementsByTagName('published')[0].firstChild.wholeText
         self.assertEqual(published[-6:], '+00:42')
 
+    def test_feed_no_content_self_closing_tag(self):
+        tests = [
+            (Atom1Feed, 'link'),
+            (Rss201rev2Feed, 'atom:link'),
+        ]
+        for feedgenerator, tag in tests:
+            with self.subTest(feedgenerator=feedgenerator.__name__):
+                feed = feedgenerator(
+                    title='title',
+                    link='https://example.com',
+                    description='self closing tags test',
+                    feed_url='https://feed.url.com',
+                )
+                doc = feed.writeString('utf-8')
+                self.assertIn(f'<{tag} href="https://feed.url.com" rel="self"/>', doc)
+
     @requires_tz_support
     def test_feed_last_modified_time_naive_date(self):
         """