婚外包养与男性气质的关系化建构

Unpacking the Second-wife Phenomenon from a Relational Approach to Gender

近年来,关于性别建构的理论出现对其潜在的个体主义的倾向的反思,提出引入"关系化取向",关注他者承担的繁复的情感的、身体的和性方面的"支持"行为,共同生产出个体性别的真实完整性和/或刻意违背(transgression)。本文借助性别关系化建构的视角,特别是"性别劳动"的概念,分析婚外包养关系与不同阶层男性气质的关系化建构,阐述"二奶"在家里家外所承担的家务、情感和身体劳动,以使她们的伴侣感到作为男人的尊严和地位,进而修复阶层化的男性危机或彰显新贵身份。本文还将深入考察权力关系是如何影响性别劳动在特定的亲密关系中的运作,并讨论关系化建构视角在本土性别研究中的意义。

A critical reflection of the individual lurking within theories of gender has been emerged in recent years. Scholars propose to adopt a relational approach to gender, paying attention to the affective and bodily efforts performed by other that bolstering one＇ s gender authenticity or co-producing its transgression. Drawing upon the approach of a relational construction of gender, and the concept of gender labor in particu- lar, this article examines the relational construction of masculinity in the second-wife＇ arrangements in con- temporary China, analyzing the ways in which second-wives＇ domestic, emotional and bodily labor help their male partners achieve a sense of dignity as a man that help them navigate through or communicate class sta- tus. It also explores an unequal processing of gender labor in intimate relations and is concluded with a dis- cussion of the advantages of applying the relational approach to gender in Chinese context.