日本“最可怕的女人”:上野千鹤子的女性主义思想

“The Most Terrifying Woman in Japan”:Chizuko Ueno’s Feminist Ideology

上野千鹤子的女性主义思想是一种开放的与现实生活、生命体验紧密相关的理论。她的研究大致可分为前后两期:前期探讨的主要是女性的精神成长历程及其思想的构建和实施的途径;后期的研究转向了对“弱者”的发现与关注。具体来说,随着年岁的增长,她渐渐发现了人生的一个真相,即不管人生的前半场如何精彩绝伦,后半场所面临的都是独居、衰老与死亡的考验——每个人都将会由“强者”变为“弱者”。为了应对生命中的这一变化,她提出了“照护”问题。这意味着她的女性主义理论所关注的不仅仅只是女性,而是整个社会中的“弱者”群体。至此,上野千鹤子的女性主义思想由早期的一个性别理论,转换成了如何让人的后半生在无忧无虑中安然度过的富有人道主义精神的理论。

The feminist theory that Chizuko Ueno advances is an open theory,which is closely related to real life and life experience.Her research can be roughly divided into two phases:in the early stage,it is mainly about the process of a woman’s mental growth and the way of building and implementing the woman’s ideas;while in the later stage,her research turns to focus on discovering and attaching attention to“the weak”.Specifically,as she gains in age,she gradually discovers a truth of life,namely,no matter how wonderful the first half of a person’s life is,in the second half he has to face the ordeal of living alone,aging and death.Thus,a significant change will happen to everyone—from a“strong”individual to a“weak”one.In response to this change,Chizuko Ueno raises the issue of“care”,which indicates that her feminist theory focuses not only on women,but also on the“weak”groups in the whole society.So far,Chizuko Ueno’s feminism has changed from her early attention to the issues of gender to her later concern with the issues of humanitarianism:how to make people spend the rest of their lives carefreely.