Why are Chinese Weibo Matriarchy and Queer Theories Incompatible?

1. The Perspective of Native Matriarchy

The most basic theoretical and thought sources of the local matriarchal community are mainly "The Symbol of the Goddess", "Matriarchy", "The Living Goddess", "Sacred Love", "A Country Without Fathers and No Husbands", "The Holy Grail and the Sword", and "Mosuo". Matriarchy Research”, and the matrilineal ethnic group research model is mainly aimed at the Mosuo people in my country. Queer is a theory highly related to modernity, and it has not been in the domestic theoretical system for a long time. A literature resource combining queer perspectives and Mosuo studies.

The starting point of the native matriarchy perspective is that “women” are a fertile group, and the formation of the patriarchy is based on the loss of female fertility. Local matriarchy takes female fertility as the starting point, and creates a series of new language vocabulary to express this theoretical logic, such as "sexual relationship", "mother separation", "child separation", "mother standard" and so on.

"Sexual relationship" refers to the "relationship" established at the level of sexual attraction, love, sexual relationship, etc., which is different from "kinship", which refers to the relationship established at the level of blood, kinship, etc. Native matriarchy believes that patriarchy deprives women of the right to interpret the value of women's reproductive functions through "sexual relationship", and uses "sexual relationship between men and women" as the "origin of life", and "male and female" refers to "reproductive". "Sperm is the seed of life, and the uterus is only the soil for sperm growth", "Women give birth to men's blood", and then developed a marriage system that exploits and oppresses women.

Therefore, native matriarchy opposes the interpretation of human origin based on sexual relationship, and supports the interpretation of human origin based on the relationship between "mother and child". That is, "female" is used to refer to "fertility" and "origin of life", while "male" is simply "mother's child" and "female-bearing gametes". Since "male" and "female" in "gender" still carry the interpretation from the perspective of "sex", "mother" and "children" have been developed to distinguish them, clarifying the order framework of "mother and child" An order frame that takes precedence over "men and women."

The practice of local matriarchy is mainly reflected in the fact that supporters of local matriarchy do not join the patrilineal marriage system and try to re-establish small-scale matrilineal families.

The queer perspective

Queer theory is understood locally as "equal rights for sexual minorities", "multiple gender theory", and "fluid gender theory". With the introduction of transgender issues into the field of discussion, queer theory has been further simplified and understood locally as "support for transgender". By". In the eyes of local matriarchy, queerism is too obsessed with sexual relationships and completely ignores the most fundamental and important relationships. The above understandings are related to the application of queerness in local social practice and the origin of queerness, but with the development and enrichment of queer theory, this understanding of queerism is no longer sufficient.

Originally a derogatory term for deviants, the term queer was repurposed as an undifferentiated single adjective to describe sexual minorities in the 1990s due to the stigmatization of homosexuality-related identity terms by AIDS. The multiplicity of these can be understood within their respective histories, substances and contexts. It started with only sexual aspects, then with intersectional views, people of color, non-Western backgrounds, non-middle-class queer groups self-voicing and being seen, queer people are seen as gender neutral, racial Neutral, class-neutral (or inclusive of gender, race, and class) social diversity.

With the development of queer theory, queerness has become a compatible methodology, an anti-normativity research perspective, a supplementary theory that complements a richer understanding and way of thinking for social understanding and progress. At the level of theoretical criticism, the queer perspective is often embodied in asking research subjects: "Does the theory exclude some minorities?" "Is the theory compatible and takes into account other groups of people?"

3. Gender biological essentialism and biological determinism

Gender biological essentialism believes that men and women are immutable and fundamentally different due to biological characteristics, and this difference determines what is male and what is female, and the impact of this difference is the most essential , takes precedence over cultural and social influences.

Biological determinism, on the other hand, holds that the characteristics and behavior of individuals are determined by certain aspects of biology, such as chromosomes. Biological determinists believe that environmental factors do not have a decisive influence on people and that social categories such as gender, race, sexuality and disability are also biologically based.

The view of native matriarchy is based on biological essentialism and biological determinism. Indigenous matriarchy believes that sex is determined by chromosomes/reproductive organs/reproductive capacity, and these biological characteristics are consistent and synchronized for most female human beings, so they believe that these biological characteristics together determine what is human gender. Indigenous matriarchy holds that women are biologically the source of life with the power of creation, while men are biologically incapable of creating power. Therefore, women are higher than men, and the relationship between women and men is inexorable and insurmountable. The divide is also an established biological fact.

4. Gender monism and dualism of indigenous matriarchy

Some native matriarchs hold a "monistic" view, arguing that there is only one kind of "sex", that is, "female", and "male" is only a "mutilated, incomplete, and infertile "female."

Another part of native matriarchy is based on the claims of biological essentialism and biological determinism, which hold that the immutable binary division of "male and female" is a biological fact, and that "both male and female are derived from female" is also a biological fact.

5. Dualism and Pluralism

The dualistic tradition is the main form of the epistemology of the most important Western civilization, and it was not deconstructed until postmodernism. Many theoretical resources of feminist philosophy and posthumanist philosophy are derived from postmodernism.

Dualism is not only manifested as gender binary, but also causes the division and opposition of a series of concepts such as material/spirit, rational/sensual, technology/nature, self/other, subject/object, etc. Under the tradition of binary gender, women are Those who vaguely correspond to subordinate, negative concepts in this spectrum, and who do not conform to the gender binary, are seen as deformed, wrong, eccentric, and unimportant.

Queer, as "a person who does not conform to the binary gender division", rebels against the stereotype of the binary system and advocates multiple and compatible perspectives. Queer feminism and other feminist schools influence each other, different feminist schools Both present a de-dualistic ecology. Ecofeminism and technological feminism also present a de-dualistic ecology, because de-dualism eliminates not only the oppression based on binary gender, just as the strengthening of gender dualism does not only strengthen gender.

The critique of gender dualism is not to fall into extreme constructivism, but to recognize the differences of the majority of the biological sex, the differences of the minority, and the construction of social gender. Queer "gender pluralism" is based on " Compatible with non-binary beings”.

Indigenous matriarchy believes that dualism/monism is a biological fact, however, from a biological point of view, neither monism nor dualism can adequately explain the various biological sex situations in nature, such as snails, jellyfish, C. elegans, sand Silkworm, oyster, red snapper, eel, trout, etc. The dualism of human biological sex based on biological essentialism and biological determinism also cannot fully explain the situation of intersex groups, such as intersex persons with fertility and male genitalia, chromosome xx and intersex with male genitalia etc.

As mentioned earlier, the queer perspective is often reflected in such a theoretical criticism: "Does the theory exclude some minorities?" "Is the theory compatible and considers the situation of other groups?", applied to local matriarchy In this theory, we can once again look back at the definition of “motherhood” by local matriarchy. Local matriarchy defines "mother-differentiation" as "the sex with fertility", and based on "fertility", it emphasizes that "mother-specific" is higher than "child-differentiated", and there is no difference between "mother-differentiated" and "child-differentiated". spanning order. However, this definition, and the division of order based on it, is ineffective in many cases, such as infertile females, non-binary creatures, fertile intersex persons with male genitalia and many more.

Clearly, when this definition was proposed as a basic theory of native matriarchy, it only considered the majority, fertile and single-genital human females. This consideration of the "majority" is different from that of queerism for the "minority," and this difference is one of the main reasons why discussions of indigenous matriarchy and indigenous queerism are often incompatible. Indigenous matriarchy believes that the perspective based on the "majority" is universal and universal, while queerism believes that the perspective based on the "minority" is a disruptive variable and a fulcrum for people to reflect on inherent norms.

Queerism believes that the elimination of binary gender will eliminate the oppression of patriarchy based on the division of binary gender. However, for this same reason, native matriarchy cannot accept the elimination of binary gender—the elimination of binary gender, It eliminates the oppression based on binary gender division, the fact that women's fertility is exploited, the value of women's unique fertility, and "people are created by mothers, not by parents." "Mother and son are different and cannot be overstepped." This dissolution is the beginning of the loss of "mother's separation".

6. Natural facts and opinions

The formation of matrilineal, paternal and other different blood lineages is actually derived from the different understanding of human social origin at the level of structural anthropology. This is a human ethnic group's understanding and judgment of natural facts, but not "natural facts". itself.

Just as male scientists in the 19th century used biological essentialism in the name of nature, modernity, rationality, and objectivity, rationalizing gender bias and racial bias, many researchers often used "natural facts" to justify their positions. However, natural facts It exists objectively and does not depend on the subjective will of human beings, nor does it naturally possess any rank, order, or moral judgment.

Sperm forms fertilized eggs in women, does it mean that "women's bodies are the growth soil of men's blood"?

Females have a gestational function, can it explain that "females are the first sex" and "people with gestational functions are more advanced"?

There are all kinds of non-binary creatures in nature, can it explain that "a multi-sex human society must be more just"?

Does following natural facts necessarily mean "good"?

Are any facts of nature necessarily fair?

Shouldn't any natural fact be resisted and changed?

The former is a fact, while the latter is a judgment. No one has the right to interpret natural facts. Most of the time, people only rely on natural facts to support their positions and opinions, but opinions and facts should not be confused. Whether it is queerism or native matriarchy, we must distinguish between facts and judgments, and be wary of substituting judgmental narratives for factual statements, and guarding against prepositional judgments that are easily guided by natural facts. , just as wary of the judgments of the male scientists of the 19th century in the name of science, biology, and natural facts.

7. Linguistic gender

Alice B.Kehoe once pointed out that English, as an Indo-European language, classifies nouns as masculine, feminine or neuter, and the grammatical rules in which modifiers are consistent with noun categories are called gender. Therefore, Gender is in a sense a linguistic term.

Few language groups have gender grammars without referring to sex, such as Semitic, some ancient Egyptian, and Nile languages. Some language families, such as Uralic and Turkic, do not have "Gender" grammatically. There is no clear distinction between Sex and Gender in Chinese. The distinction between Gender and Sex for discussion and research is only after the theory of feminism and gender studies entered China from the West.

Because Chinese linguistics has a different set of ontology than the West, the use of Gender's concept in Chinese language and cultural contexts and gender studies contexts will be more ambiguous, complex, or difficult for local researchers to use. accepted. This is also one of the potential reasons why the native matriarchy based on the Chinese language system and the queer theory based on the Western language system are incompatible in the native context.

8. Native Matriarchy and Queerism

Indigenous matriarchy believes that matriarchal society follows a matriarchal order based on natural facts that "mothers are different" and "mothers are higher than children", and only pays attention to kinship. Or a few people in a sexual relationship.

Although I personally think that the formation of the logic chain behind this argument lacks listening and in-depth research on the voices of the minority groups within the Mosuo (the local Mosuo research's discussion of the status of minorities is mainly based on the representation of the sexual majority); Speculation on the complexity of language, culture, and social identities within different communities, such as matrilineal communities that value sexual relationships, matrilineal communities with polysexuality, and non-maternal non-paternal communities; An archaeological examination of historical causes (is the distinction between valuing motherhood and sensibility at the core of the formation of patrilineal and matrilineal lines?); but it also points to the core compatibility of matrilineal communities and queerism— - The ideal matriarchal society of "partnership society" and "strong compatibility" itself does not conflict with the queer perspective of "accommodating the minority" and "hearing the voice of the minority".

In addition to the discussion of indigenous matriarchy, there are a large number of studies on indigenous matriarchal twin spirits that combine queerism and matriarchal social studies, and anti-colonial queer theoretical studies in Latin America/South Asia. Feminism is critical, But it is not a zero-sum game between the enemy and the enemy. Theories can be linked to each other, promote each other, and be compatible with each other.

While this article has been as complete as possible in paraphrasing my personal view of native matriarchy, and as rigorously as possible with a series of theoretical critiques from a queer perspective, there is still something I don’t know about. Limitations and misunderstandings, I hope everyone can view it dialectically.

Feminism is inherently valuable in the diversity of positions and perspectives. There is no single "fundamentalism" in theory, nor is there universalism once and for all. One day, your theories and mine will be changed, eliminated, and advanced, and we need it. Compatible and absorb each other's knowledge to form a theoretical system with more depth and breadth, and there is no point in their disappearance——

Why are Indigenous Matriarchy and Queer Theory Incompatible?