diff --git a/django/contrib/staticfiles/storage.py b/django/contrib/staticfiles/storage.py
index 371e9f2755..088963102e 100644
--- a/django/contrib/staticfiles/storage.py
+++ b/django/contrib/staticfiles/storage.py
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ from django.core.cache import (
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
 from django.core.files.base import ContentFile
 from django.core.files.storage import FileSystemStorage, get_storage_class
-from django.utils.encoding import force_bytes
 from django.utils.functional import LazyObject
 
 
@@ -296,7 +295,7 @@ class HashedFilesMixin:
                     if hashed_file_exists:
                         self.delete(hashed_name)
                     # then save the processed result
-                    content_file = ContentFile(force_bytes(content))
+                    content_file = ContentFile(content.encode())
                     # Save intermediate file for reference
                     saved_name = self._save(hashed_name, content_file)
                     hashed_name = self.hashed_name(name, content_file)
@@ -466,7 +465,7 @@ class CachedFilesMixin(HashedFilesMixin):
             self.hashed_files = _MappingCache(default_cache)
 
     def hash_key(self, name):
-        key = hashlib.md5(force_bytes(self.clean_name(name))).hexdigest()
+        key = hashlib.md5(self.clean_name(name).encode()).hexdigest()
         return 'staticfiles:%s' % key