唯信本質：重探生理性、社會性與性特質

Abstract

近年來主流酷兒理論者崇尚反本質主義（或稱為建構主義）並提出了包含生理性、社會性與性特質的性別流動論。他們批判本質主義，進而形成本質主義與性別建構論的對立。儘管酷兒理論者視跨性別主體為性別流動或性別模糊的具體展現，但對觀者而言，真是如此嗎？為了論證需要，主流理論者時常以跨性表演者與變性人為跨性主體的例子，並且假設觀者在跨性主體身上必定看到性別的流動與不確定性。然而，觀者的角度卻從未被正視。本論文聚焦於酷兒論述中屢屢出現卻從未被探討的觀者。其中觀者主要分為兩部分：跨性扮裝劇場的觀眾與變性人的伴侶。論文中以觀眾與伴侶的觀點為主軸，說明觀者實際上在面對跨性表演及變性人時，反應並不如酷兒理論者所言。本論文主張觀者能夠保有多重覺知（multiple consciousness）：意即能同時讀出跨性別主體的身體性、原生性與性別氣質。一旦觀者知曉表演者的身體性別或變性者的原生性別，就會注意到並視此為跨性別主體的本質。簡言之，觀者因受先備知識影響，並不會在跨性主體身上感到疑惑，而是同時看見跨性主體不變的本質及其建構出的外在樣貌。 第一章將探討觀眾在跨性扮裝表演者身上所看到的身體性別。討論範圍橫跨文藝復興的男扮女裝劇場、復辟時期乃至十九世紀的女扮男裝劇場，到日本的寶塚歌劇團。第二章析述伴侶在變性人身上所見以及偏好的身體性或原生性別。以電影《男孩別哭》中的Lana與《藍調石牆T》裡的Theresa為例，說明對某些伴侶而言，身體性乃是不可撼動的本質。並且舉Pat Califia與變性友人的互動及變性人伴侶的經驗來說明當變性人的身體性不復存時，這些觀者轉而相信其原生性別。其中許多變性人伴侶關注並偏好特定的原生性別，但這些觀點追根究柢卻是奠基於對原生性別的刻板印象。 第三章接著闡述對原生性別的刻板印象如何影響觀者對性與性別的觀點，而被「性別化」的性暴力最能突顯此點。例如激進女性主義者就時常將性暴力性別化，尤其將男性與性暴力加害者做連結。本章援引Sharon Marcus的論述，說明女性如何在性暴力論述中被「性別化」與「性化」而成注定的受害者。而同樣情況也在扮裝表演裡可見。本章提出諸多例子，尤以兩齣皆由呂柏伸所執導的《量•度》來說明女演員在跨性扮演男性暴力角色時，是如何因女性身體的「被看見」而降低其性威脅的強度。

For decades, the dominant anti-essentialist (also called constructionist) queer theorists have established a paradigm of gender fluidity in queer study. They criticize essentialism and stress the opposition between essentialism and constructionism concerning cross-gendered subjects, of which cross-dressers and transsexuals are often used as examples. In order to validate their arguments, theorists often assume that observers must have experienced ambiguity or uncertainty when they see cross-gendered subjects. Drawing on the experiences of both the audience of cross-dressing performances and partners of transsexuals, this thesis argues that those observers are capable of holding “multiple consciousness,” which means that they can perceive birth-assigned sex, physical sex and gender characteristics at the same time. As long as the observers know the cross-dresser’s physical sex or the transsexual’s birth-assigned sex, it is viewed as the inalterable essence of the cross-gendered subjects by the observer. Inevitably affected by prior knowledge, observers seldom experience the ambiguity or uncertainty as queer theorists argue. Any physical characteristic or behavior is therefore “gendered” according to that “prior knowledge” of the cross-gendered subject’s physical or genetic sex. However, observers do not perceive the essence purely. Their perceptions are unavoidably influenced by social stereotypes about sexual differences. This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is about the audience’s perception of physical sex in cross-dressing performances. In this chapter, I demonstrate how the use in Elizabethan and Jacobean England of boy actors cast as females and the use in Restoration England of actresses as males encouraged the audience to notice the physical sex of the performers. Furthermore, the audience’s published reflections on the performances of the world-famous Takarazuka Revue in Japan reveal that the audience is still able to read the physical bodies clearly even when the costumes are designed to conceal the actresses’ female bodies. The second chapter is concerned with transsexual relationships, focusing on the partners’ preference for a certain physical sex or birth-assigned sex of the transsexuals. Lana in the film of Boys Don’t Cry and Theresa in the novel of Stone Butch Blues are taken to discuss how the partners may stick to physical sex as the fundamental essence of a pre-operative and a post-operative transsexual. Pat Califia’s realization of his transsexual friend’s birth-assigned sex and examples of some transmen’s partners are applied to illustrate how genetic sex eventually replaces physical sex to be the fundamental essence. Many partners’ fixation on genetic sex turns out to be deeply affected by culturally rooted stereotypes. In Chapter Three, these prevalent and problematic stereotypes are discussed and made clear. Stereotypes are readily apparent in the gendering of sexual violence, which can mostly exemplify how the perception of gender is determined by the knowledge of the physical sex of those involved. In sexual violence women are often considered victims while men are often seen as perpetrators. Radical feminist arguments and anxiety on the “power” that is begotten to men with their male genitalia reveal the general assumption that perpetrators of sexual violence are primarily associated with male-bodied people solely. Sharon Marcus’s argument is used to point out how females are always immediately “gendered” and “sexualized” in sexual violence. In the end, I use the performances of The Constant Couple, the play of The Flirting Scholar, and two Taiwanese productions of Measure for Measure (both directed by Lu Po-shen) to demonstrate how sexual violence or threat is mitigated when the actresses take the perpetrating male roles.