【性別觀察】從「後宮」到「政治淫婦」，政壇何時擺脫女性噤聲與性羞辱

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The 2020 presidential election is just around the corner, but as the debate heats up in the party primaries, we are also seeing a lot of unfriendly political rhetoric against women. Including (but not limited to) Gou Taiming, who participated in the Kuomintang primary election, asked his wife to "not interfere in politics in the harem on military and state affairs", and Wu Xianghui pointed out on Facebook that Tsai Ing-wen was "political".

In political language, women's voices are often suppressed. From today's news, we can just see that the two most common discourse strategies for suppressing women are "female silencing" and "sexual humiliation".

Women in politics are silent: When Terry Gou said, "Don't interfere in politics in the harem"

According to many media reports such as the Economic Daily and the Liberty Times, Terry Gou, who recently expressed his willingness to run for the 2020 presidential election, said in an exclusive interview with TVBS on the 25th that his wife opposed his participation in the election campaign, "I have run away from home, (omitted), and I have to be a dad when I go home at night." He also called on his wife to go home quickly, "military and national affairs, the harem should not interfere in politics." (Extended reading: [Gender Observation] "Military and State Affairs, I Hope the Harem Will Not Get Involved in Politics" and look at the world's female leadership trend)

"My wife is 24 years younger than me, she doesn't understand this, she doesn't know the importance of peace in the future." In an interview with Dongsen News, he said so.

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Gou's "harem interference" statement immediately caused controversy. According to Wikipedia, the harem refers to "the residence of the monarch or noble wife and concubines in the palace or aristocratic mansion in a polygamous country, and later borrowed from the concubines." His remarks not only compared himself to the emperor, but also compared his wife to a concubine.

At the same time, we also see that in the "harem don't interfere in politics", there is a very clear gender distribution order. Men dominate the order and handle major events outside, while women take care of their children in the private sphere. Some people may argue that this is just the division of housework between Gou and his wife, which has nothing to do with the society as a whole, and should not be "magnified and examined". However, as a presidential candidate, speech has its own public impact. As soon as these words came out, they continued to consolidate the gender order in the rigid division of housework.

"Shut up for me" Women are always a group of silenced people in history

Mary Beard, a professor and historian at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, mentioned in her book "Confession of Women: The Most Dangerous Power and the History of Silence" that women have been in a "silenced" position for a long time in history. (Read more: Inaudible female voice: I want to protest, but they say shut up)

One of the Twitter messages I received said, "I'm going to cut off your head and rape you." The Twitter name chosen by an American journalist's intimidator was "Headless Sow". Another woman received a Twitter message that read, "Your tongue should be pulled out."

Beard wrote, "First of all, as a woman, your position is not much different, and as soon as you step into the traditional male realm, you will definitely be insulted - the point is not what you say, it is simply because you speak with your mouth open. A fairly common saying is: shut up. Otherwise, it is a vow to eliminate women's ability to speak."

Don't get involved in politics. Don't talk too much. Women don't understand politics. How many times have we experienced such pain in our growing experience? And this sentence came out of the mouth of a "presidential candidate" confidently.

Vivian Wu once wrote in the article "A few women succeed, but not most women have a voice":

When women's "silence/speechlessness" is seen as a natural and "must-have" phenomenon, women who try to break through the barriers and speak out seem to become intruders, destroying some existing and stable hierarchy, and the various suppressions and attacks they suffer are justified.

Once women's silence is taken for granted and innate, as long as women try to write something and speak up for society, it is easy to be attacked immediately. And the attack often does not come from the evaluation of her abilities, but simply because of gender, because she is a woman.

This example is below.

Sexual humiliation in politics: When Wu Xianghui said that Tsai Ing-wen is "political"

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Coincidentally, writer Wu Xianghui described President Tsai Ing-wen as political on his personal Facebook last night: Politics Tsai Ing-wen's definition is as follows: openly betraying the party's nominated comrades, openly hooking up with party competitors, and being a complete political traitor. [1]

As a political metaphor, language such as "" and "adultery" is undoubtedly a direct attack on gender. It has nothing to do with what she actually did or who she was. After all, if Tsai Ing-wen were a man, would she still be accused? (Extended reading: Attacked appearance, Tsai Ing-wen responded: Using gender to question the ability, just blurring the focus)

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And we know that the so-called "gaffe" is certainly not the first time.

On January 5, 2017, he posted on Facebook: "A woman is the president, the chief executive should find a real man, who has shoulders and courage, and dares to cut and kill."

When he talks about "Majestic America", "Amazing Finland", and "Surprise Norway". We are also quite curious, did Wu Xianghui see the human rights spirit of the United States and the gender equality of Northern Europe?

In this regard, legislator Lin Jingyi also issued a reminder today: "Every democratic election is also every choice of value. Every democratic election is a choice of the future way of life. Gender equality is human rights. Seniors who have long advocated liberal democracy and human rights, please don't be gender blind."

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American experience: Can long-term political sexism be changed?

As a woman, participating in public affairs seems to always be an original sin. We understand that more women participating in politics does not necessarily mean that politics is more "gender equality" (Read more: Mrs. V's article|Just because a few women succeed does not mean that most women have a voice). But at least, when more and more women's experiences can appear in the public domain, there is a chance to change.

Taking the United States as an example, at the end of 2018, when the United States had just experienced a congressional re-election, the Women's March even launched the "Call to Sisters" (#CallYourSister) campaign to encourage women to go out and vote. In the end, a total of 113 female members of parliament entered the National Assembly.

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Such a result has indeed gradually brought about better gender change for both parties.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old Democrat, is considered the party's closest to socialism, Bernard Sanders' successor, and is also known as a rising political star in the United States. On May 1, Netflix will release her documentary "Knock Down the House" with three other female lawmakers, describing how they have made an impact on American politics: more leftist economic and health care reforms, more gender-friendly policies.

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Even Martha McSally, the current senator of the Republican Party who is considered more conservative and one of the first female pilots in the United States, echoed the #Metoo movement in March this year and spoke about her experience of being sexually assaulted by her superiors during her time in the military (extended reading: [Gender Watch] If Captain Marvel lived in the real world, she might even be sexually assaulted by the military), bluntly saying that the military needs immediate sexual harassment reform.

"We have to fix this whole military culture distortion that they think they are tacitly consent to use sexual violence against women, and of course, men. But we need to make sure that all commanders are educated not to let this happen, and we need to make sure that they know how to act legally. If the commander himself is the source of the problem, they must be dismissed."

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"Women's silence" and "sexual humiliation", the misogynistic Taiwanese political arena should change

As voters, in addition to expressing opinions with ballots, we should also carefully examine what politicians and their staff say on the stage. And when these sexist remarks are ignored and taken for granted, how will they affect the future atmosphere of discussion?

In the political arena, we often see the belittle and distrust of women, they can only be quiet wives and obedient daughters (Extended reading: [Gender Observation] Meat Search Han Bing? is always expected to be "auxiliary election" of politicians), and of course Mazu who is endorsed.

Or, these women are often the emergency firefighters after male politicians mess things up. For example, Terry Gou, who said today that his wife is willing to go home.

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We must resist this kind of misogynistic Taiwanese politics.

After all, gender discrimination, national identity, transitional justice, every issue needs to be paid attention to, and absolutely linked to each other.

What we want is that as a woman, experiences, stories and voices are truly respected by society. Our opinions are indeed heard and discussed. Even if we repeat the same words over and over again, we will not stop:

The misogynistic Taiwanese political arena needs to be supervised and changed. Regardless of the political environment of the country, it is also necessary to start respecting diverse voices.