新自由主義日式酒店陪侍勞動的資本轉換、關係工作與想望

Abstract

本研究以台北條通日式酒店「椛」為田野場域，採用參與觀察的民族誌方法，旨在探討新自由主義意識形態如何透過經濟治理與心理工程，重新形塑陪侍工作者的勞動實踐、階級心性與生命想望。不同於過往性產業研究多聚焦於「貧窮驅動」或「悲慘敘事」，本研究分析一群具備中產家庭背景與高等教育素養的女性，如何將具備污名的陪侍工作轉譯為一種理性的資本積累與自我投資過程。 陪侍工作者在勞動實踐中展現了精密的「自我企業家」心性，透過高成本的美學勞動積累「身體資本」與「身體資本」，並以此作為生產工具。在條通特定的歷史脈絡下，她們採取「像日本女人的台灣女人」之展演策略，回應日籍顧客帶有「帝國優越感」的凝視，並運用人格勞動建構一致的人格設定以吸引顧客。 在資本轉換與協商過程中，工作者透過「關係工作」與「邊界工作」，策略性地運用「欲擒故縱」與「糖與鞭子」等技術，將親密感模糊化，這些技術在互動中扮演關鍵角色，成為工作者捍衛專業尊嚴與拒絕情緒勒索的籌碼，確保其人格主體不被經濟資本徹底買斷。 然而，這種追求「自由」的勞動模式卻伴隨著深刻的悖論。高報酬帶來的「精緻生活」形成了強大的經濟黏著性，導致工作者陷入「職業鎖定」的困境，必須不斷投入更高強度的勞動以維持資本的再生產，揭示了新自由主義下「自由」假象後的治理代價。 最後，本研究探討主體如何透過「想望（Aspiration）」在危殆結構中進行調適。在親密關係中，她們一方面透過「非理性」的愛戀追求情感自主性以修復尊嚴，另一方面在婚姻協商中則展現高度理性，要求經濟基礎與個人自主，試圖在傳統穩定感與新自由主義式個人自由之間達成戰略平衡。最終，這些想望幫助她們在不穩定的現實中重新定錨，重構出具備尊嚴的自我形象。

This study explores the field of "Hua," a Japanese-style club in the Tiaotong district of Taipei, utilizing ethnographic participant observation to analyze how neoliberal ideology, through economic governance and psychic engineering, reshapes the labor practices, class mentality, and life aspirations of hostess workers. Diverging from previous sex industry research that primarily focuses on "poverty-driven" or "tragic narratives," this study analyzes a group of women with middle-class backgrounds and higher education. It examines how they translate stigmatized hostess labor into a process of rational capital accumulation and self-investment under the collective mentality of "personal responsibility" and the "entrepreneur of oneself". The research finds that hostesses exhibit the mentality of an "entrepreneur of oneself," accumulating "bodily capital" and "desirable capital" through high-cost aesthetic labor as their primary production tools. Within the specific historical context of Tiaotong, they adopt a performance strategy of being "Japanese-like Taiwanese women" to respond to the "imperial gaze" of Japanese clients. They also employ narrative labor to construct consistent personality settings to attract and maintain customers. In the process of capital conversion and negotiation, workers utilize "relational work" and "boundary work" to strategically employ selective intimacy tactics, such as "playing hard to get" and "sugar and whip," to blur the lines of intimacy. The study points out that "personality capital" (the "interesting soul") plays a crucial role as a bargaining chip for workers to defend their professional dignity and resist emotional blackmail, ensuring their subjecthood is not entirely bought out by economic capital. However, this labor model in pursuit of "freedom" entails a profound paradox. The refined lifestyle sustained by high rewards creates strong economic stickiness, leading to the predicament of "vocational locking". Workers fall into a cycle of physical and mental exhaustion to maintain capital reproduction as their bodily capital faces irreversible time-based depreciation and the "race against aging". This reveals the governing costs hidden behind the neoliberal illusion of "freedom". Finally, this research explores how subjects adjust through "aspiration" within precarious structures. In their private lives, they pursue "affective autonomy" through "irrational" love to repair their dignity. Simultaneously, in rational marriage negotiations, they demand economic independence and personal autonomy, attempting to reach a strategic balance between traditional stability and neoliberal personal freedom. Ultimately, these aspirations help them re-anchor themselves within an unstable reality and reconstruct a dignified self-image amidst the "role-playing" game of labor.