Observe the "Northeast Straight Men Observation Report" report

Three months ago, the author criticized the "Northeast Straight Men Observation Report" published by a mass self-media, and wrote an article "Observation <Northeast Straight Men Observation Report> Report", analyzing the operation mechanism of the "Northeast" cognitive device. It is worth adding that the operation of the recognition device is reversible. Input a can get b, then input b can also get a. The We-Media's recent new issue of the "Guide to the Identification of Social Scumbags", which also reached 100,000 plus readings, is evidence of this. Black people are only black people, and they become slaves only under the slavery production relations maintained by the capitalist world system; Northeasterners are only Northeasterners, and only under the regional imbalance on which the Chinese capitalist system depends, will they become slaves due to their regional and Class stigma has become identifiable "absolutely straight men" and "social scumbags". Here, we re-read this old article three months ago, and we can still feel its unceasing vitality.

On May 31, the WeChat public account "Human Care Project" published an article titled "Observation Report on Straight Men in Northeast China". So far, it has received 100,000+ views. This report uses two cognitive devices—“straight men” and “northeasts”. We might as well start with “straight men” and move toward “northeasts.”

In the past two years, "straight man" has been widely used as an adjective in an ambiguous negative sense. "Straight" means that sexual orientation is a "hard translation" from a similar usage of "straight" in English; then the meaning of "straight man" is originally nothing more than "a man who loves women". However, "straight man" quickly evolved from a "concept" to a "symbol" - a signifier that includes an inability or unwillingness to understand women's psychology; often tends to directly express industrial and agricultural societies. "masculinity," thus seeming to be outdated in what is said to be a "post-industrial society", etc. This kind of drift has aroused the anger of some men, who believe that the negative color of "straight men" comes from the arrogance and strength of gender issues such as "feminism" or "gay equality".

Leaving aside negative value judgments about gender issues, such an understanding is intuitive. Out of similar "intuition", some Han people also raised accusations of "vilifying the Han nationality and beautifying the grassland people" against the "blood transfusion theory" promoted by texts such as "Wolf Totem". However, in the "Blood Transfusion Theory", the real and living body of the grassland people no longer exists, and can only survive in the body of the Han nationality or the "Chinese nation" in the form of "blood"; this is a kind of The "Declaration" that the Central Plains completed the real and complete occupation of the frontiers is also a release of the "oneness"'s potential to conquer "diversity" in the imagination of the "Chinese people (di) ethnic group (guo)" of "diversity and unity". case.

And just like the above argument for "the theory of blood transfusion is still the Han standard", the discourse of "straight man" is still not difficult to be identified as a kind of phallus-centrism; here, the degree of "straightness" becomes In order to evaluate and adjust the scale of contemporary "male" (note the quotation marks!) "virtue"; in this way, the "not straight" opposite to "straight" disappears; other sexual orientations that are serious to the client will not be Then it becomes a real and vivid existence; men who are not so "straight" are just "men" who are more considerate and understand women, and only this unified "male" exists. This discourse fundamentally blocks the room for the development of a social construction theory of gender, better than the average patriarchal discourse from the revolutionary potential in action that challenges existing repressive gender relations; all one can do is give Adjust your temperament in the given gender role ! Therefore, the "male" in the application of "straight male" can only still be the kind of male dominated by the patriarchal family patriarch; a "not so straight male" man only uses "tenderness" the way, men who exercise patriarchy more delicately, not more poorly. In running this whole discourse, the penis becomes an absent presence. It only mocks exhibitionist behavior, not the suggestion of a bulge from the waist down.

In this sense, the text we want to pay attention to is even more interesting; in this "Observation Report on Straight Men in Northeast China", which was read by Shiwanjia, he said: "This time we are not talking about Northeasterners, but 'Absolut Straignt Man' in the Northeast narrow sense" [spelled so]. Someone commented on this: "You can't write an article about the shortcomings of people in one place. When others question them, they say: I only wrote about your 'absolutely straight men'. Who defines this absolute? This comment can be said to have pinpointed the relationship between the two cognitive devices in this text: once the specific “Northeast” discourse conveyed in the text is questioned, the “Northeast Cognitive Device” fails and cannot successfully “invoke” the subject to actively identify with the anti-Northeast ideology. At the same time, the "straight man" recognition device can play a role in a timely manner, covering the "Northeast" retreat; the subtle negative connotation of the "straight man" image has become a "disclaimer" when writing orientalism about the Northeast.

Not only that, the overlapping juxtaposition of “straight men” and “northeast” discourses has offensive functions in addition to the above-mentioned defensive functions: the “straight men” discourse itself is simultaneously embedded in the cognitive structure of the Northeast and the self-knowledge structure of the Northeast. middle. Regarding the latter, a commentator who claimed to be a native of the Northeast said: "Now the little scumbags in the Northeast have no old Northeast style, and sigh with embarrassment" - the reading experience of "the description in the text is inaccurate at the factual level", unexpectedly Express it in the form of regret that "the facts are not close to what is stated in the text"! Fortunately, the support for this comment is not very high. For examples of the former, comments in the text and after the text are everywhere. Let's take just one of the most ingenious snippets to look at -

In the section "Emotional Life", "Xiao Lu, who has been with 2 Northeastern boyfriends", said: "Northeast straight men don't like condoms, they feel that contraception is a matter of chance." Is it necessary for us to point out that the Northeast's famous low birth rate, which is also often used to exaggerate the "hopeless" of the Northeast, and the abortion rate that is not high compared to this low birth rate? Of course it is not necessary; because this kind of evaluation of the "straight northeast man" who "doesn't like to wear condoms", as the author puts it, is "no less valuable than the confession written by a French Enlightenment thinker when he was 60 years old." ideological texts that can never be falsified by positivist methods such as statistics. "Don't love condoms", which is undoubtedly irresponsible to sexual partners, has a very clear negative color of "straight men", and further obtains "northeast sex" in this expression. Self-intermediary further confirms the "straight male" in the Northeast. The author also said in another place: "My observation of straight men in Shanghai was put in as a reference experimental group", then this statement is actually saying: "Girls, don't go to Northeast straight men who don't like condoms. Let's meet up with those Shanghai men who insist on wearing condoms! "The rough patriarchy of the Northeasterners is the ideal of the moderate and patriarchal other; and according to my limited observation, the Northeast may be like any corner of the earth. In the same way, it is still a patriarchal society, but there are still relatively few Northeastern men who exercise male power so hypocritically and shamelessly.

Compared with the 1980s, in China since the 1990s, the linear and directional "time" has not disappeared or "ended", but has been "spatialized". The "backward" and the "advanced" have found their own "flesh" from the abstract "system", "culture" and "idea" of the past. In this regard, Dai Jinhua observed the first symptoms when she was very close to the scene; in her "Invisible Writing", she pointed out the "discovery of the southern country" (specifically referring to the southeast coast, the center of China's market economy, rather than the entire geographical "South"), and the trend of "farewell to the north and go to the south". However, compared with the subsequent development, this tendency can only be said to be a preliminary manifestation; soon, the signifier of "Southern Kingdom" and its "market economy-free and diverse culture-rich daily life" After a series of related referential chains, it no longer needs to appear directly, but becomes a "method", which is used to systematically rewrite the appearance of various regions and ethnic groups in "China". The opposition of multiple "centers" and "peripheries" soon became increasingly apparent in cultural phenomena. Among these regions, the cultural changes in the Northeast are the most drastic.

In this regard, Liu Yan once summed up: "As a cultural representation, the significance of 'black soil' is to open up a non-alien 'different space' for the imaginary picture of Chinese history that has become increasingly homogenous in the 1990s. Difficult history is represented as an image of space, and this space itself is completely deprived of history.” Under the conspiracy of the state and public opinion, the cultural image of the Northeast has become a composite of "the characteristics of the Mao era, the identity characteristics of farmers and the regional characteristics of the Northeast" (Liu Yan summed up Zhao Benshan's image of the time), the Northeast workers under the "system", From the collective stalwart image of the modern industrial proletariat in the past, it was imagined as a small peasant-style group of loose-sand-like adherents, so after losing the "system", it can only show the ostentation, bluffing "loyalty" and "Violence", or "society" . Interestingly, although "society" as an adjective for people does come from the Northeast, it is also by no means a positive assessment in the original context of the Northeast. In fact, among the older Northeast population, individuals who are outside the planned economic system are called "social people", and their opposite is "unit people". But forced to leave the unit into the society. However, in the eyes of contemporary "observers", the "system" and "society" that the older generation of Northeasterners regard as ice coals are exactly the same thing: the "society" of Northeasterners, as early as when they were still in "units" In the middle, it is already doomed!

It is this kind of understanding that can reconcile these two contradictory understandings of the same group of Northeasterners "recognized": on the one hand, it is said that they are very fond of "inside the system" and "organization", and continue to actively seek dependence. and order; on the other hand, they are said to be very "social", keen on violence and destruction. This is of course carried over in the text we are looking at.

There is another symptom of the "spatialization of time" in contemporary China, that is, the identified "backward areas". When locals refute the descriptions of various "backward" phenomena in the area, they often emphasize: "This is a The things in the past are not like this anymore.” And when looking forward to the “advanced area”, he will also use the time scale to imagine how long it will take to reach such a state. Under the "Observing the Northeast Straight Men Report", the Northeasterners who are still insisting on refuting said: "The atmosphere of the times is too strong, this seems to be the Northeast 20 years ago. The new generation of children's paper has no big gold chain or small watch. , treat it as a joke." As a result, the Northeast has long been saved, and the problem of the Northeast has become "the past". They fail to realize that this "Report" and other texts that spread "Northeast" discourse overwhelmingly are not uncovering a "problem" in the past, but are precisely part of today's Northeast problem itself.

It is said that one of the authors of this "Report", "Little Pig's Trotters" is from the Northeast. In the comments at the end of the article, there are also a large number of people who claim to be from the Northeast who say that this is the case; But I don't care, we Northeasterners have a sense of humor"; this is indeed a unique sense of humor of Northeasterners, just as blacks have their unique stylistic expertise. It is not the social structure that makes the development of black people have to rely on "body", and it is not the ideological atmosphere that makes Northeasterners must be "humorous" to integrate into the circle. On the contrary, it is an innate advantage! Here I really want to draw a cross first, thank God for the generous gift to the people of Northeast China.

In fact, the popularity of the "Northeast" discourse is a symptom of the silence of the Northeast; and the Northeast people are actually not actively self-oriental; their attitude, on the one hand, echoes the sound, on the other hand, it is a dislocation of the cognition of the times. The "Report" has a highly praised comment saying: "The position of the pig's trotters in the regional self-black world is equal to that of Yankalov in the self-black national world." This is completely wrong. Taking the most common motif in Yankalov's writings, "Women Wenqing Entering Tibet" as an example, he pointed out that "Kangba men" can acquire sexuality by actively catering to their Orientalist imaginations. Satisfaction; at the price of this "self-orientalism", the power relations of the events narrated in the text are rewritten, and the seemingly ignorant passive becomes the active. Outside the text, his readers, like the "literary and artistic young women" in the story, are satisfied with his "hypocrisy" and "dirty" "self-deprecating" towards their own nation, and thus passively fall into Ideological trap without finding out that Jankarov is in fact a Tibetan nationalist unacceptable to most of his readers. And Northeastern people, such as this "pig's trotter", did not take the initiative to use the Northeast discourse to transform the power relations around them; they just satisfied the spectators; fundamentally, the Northeastern people did not have the ability to communicate with Jan Carlo. The "Northeastern Consciousness" is comparable to the Tibetan consciousness of the husband.

It is said that "any regional problem can be resolved with an entertaining language structure", "to solve the label, we must first recognize the reasons for the formation of the label, instead of denying the phenomenon and refusing to discuss it as soon as it comes up." Indeed, "denying phenomena" is meaningless; for "pointing out phenomena" is not the purpose of those who talk about "phenomena"; it is their real work to make and run the apparatus of knowledge; and in the face of these apparatuses of knowledge," The language structure of "entertainment", despite its shyness, finally entered their interior. A black man is only a black man, and he becomes a slave only under the slavery production relations maintained by the capitalist world system; the heterosexuality in the Northeast is only the heterosexuality in the Northeast, and he becomes a slave only under the regional imbalance on which the Chinese capitalist system depends. Become "absolutely straight men in the Northeast" ; and the "Report on Observing Straight Men in the Northeast" also constitutes one of the various ideological state apparatuses that maintain this system and this relationship. The above are my observations on the Report on Observing Straight Men in Northeast China.