从花神到植物学:论科学的女性标签

From Flora to Botany: A Discussion on Female-Coded Science

植物学在18、19世纪的英国成为盛行的文化活动,女性的参与尤为突出。女性与植物学有着久远的历史渊源,她们与植物的形象也常常被联系在一起,加上当时女性受限的科学教育、性别意识形态、林奈新方法的简单易行和植物学本身的特点等原因,让女性活跃在植物学文化中。植物学也因此有了性别化的标签,这为科学性别色彩的探讨提供了最直接的例子,以此追问和反思科学史研究中各种"女性"标签的局限性,如女性科学,女性气质的科学,女性主义科学等。

Botany was a fashionable pursuit in Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was especially popular among women. This phenomenon was attributed to a few reasons. Women had been considered to be closer to the nature and plants, and they were often compared to plants. Limited science education, gender ideology, simplicity of the new classification method established by Carl Linnaeus and some features of botany itself also contributed to its popularity among women. Their participation in botany brought gendered labels to it, which provides a direct and typical case to discuss the gender of science. This paper will explore the meaning of so-called ＂female science＂, ＂feminine science＂, ＂feminist science＂, et al, and point out their limitation.