“天定齐家”:美国新教妇女来华传教的社会性别逻辑

Manifest Domesticity: The American Protestant Women Missionary Movement to China and Its Gendered Logic

美国新教在华传教运动持续一个多世纪,女传教士占了半壁江山,其海外奋斗似乎有违二战前的两性社会空间分隔观。"天定齐家"说揭示了新教妇女"齐家"与"天定使命"间的话语共谋,以及她们通过海外传教方式打破两性空间分隔的社会性别逻辑。女传教士们在海外参与公共事务,同时维持海外居家的美国文化标准,并以自我牺牲的宗教品性向美国教众展示"纯正女性风范"的海外延伸,实际上实现了社会身份的"双性同体"。

Protestant missionary movement in China lasted for more than a century and more than half of the missionaries were women, whose enterprise abroad seemed to have come into conflict with the traditional ideology of separate spheres and true womanhood. Man- ifest Domesticity as a theory exposes how women＇s domesticity strikes a discursive conspiracy with masculine Manifest Destiny and le- gitimatizes women＇s missionary effort abroad. The missionary women took care of public and domestic affairs at the same time. They conveyed to the American public that their true womanhood was realized in a discourse of religious self-sacrifice abroad, an effort that helped them assume a social identity of androgyny.