種族歧視中的性別意涵：美國白人洗衣業主眼中的華人洗衣館(1870-1920)

Gender Implication of Racism: The Chinese Laundries in the Eyes of American Power Laundrymen (1870-1920)

10.6352/mhwomen.199908.0043

王秀惠(Hsiu-Hui Wang)

男／女性氣質 ； 性別分際 ； 文明 ； 種族進化 ； 華人洗衣館 ； manliness ； gender division ； civilization ； racial evolution ； Chinese laundries

近代中國婦女史研究

7期（1999 / 08 / 01）

43 - 74

繁體中文

本文探討種族歧視裡所透露出的性別意涵。檢視十九世紀末葉和二十世紀初葉美國白人所經營的機器洗衣廠和華人手工洗衣店之間的生意競爭時，白人對華人的各種指責或是詆毀攻擊，提供一個很好的例證。爲了要抗衡一般大眾認定洗衣工作是女性的工作範疇，經營機器洗衣廠的白人，將男／女性氣質、性別分工、和白人優越意識相連，型塑出他們對性別氣質的認識以及它與科技和文明進化之間的關係。白人洗衣廠和華人洗衣館的競爭故事說明華人洗衣工如何受到種族和性別的雙重歧視。 白人洗衣廠業主將對男／女氣質和性別分工的認知與種族進化及文明程度劃上等號；換言之，性別分際愈明確者，愈能表現其種族的文明進化程度。白人男性洗衣業者強調自身操作機器、運用技術，並且以高清潔標準和高效率完成洗衣工作，這些舉止仍然是男性的範疇。對比之下，華人男性之所以進入洗衣業，完全是因為西部缺乏女性人力，以之為替代。此外，華人從事洗衣工作的模式，抄襲模仿白人女性操持家務的方法。這些行徑都使得華人男性失去作爲一個男人的特質。而且華人手工洗衣店仍然使用舊式的方法，其中包含以口含水再噴水燙衣的落後不衛生方式；他們甚至被刻劃成野蠻的次等種族，藉著吃鼠肉降低生活費，以此達到收費低廉，爭取客源。白人洗衣廠主以男性威權的認知結構和白人統治非白人的種族優越意識套用在它與華人洗衣店的商業競爭過程裡，以此建立白人男性在洗衣業中的霸權。

The paper examines the implication of gender ideology in racism. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of America, the competition between white power laundries and Chinese hand laundries provided a good story. Confronted with the persistent notion that laundrywork was women's work, American power laundrymen recast laundrywork in a larger set of preexisting cultural idioms and symbols that linked manliness, machinery, and civilization. In a civilized society, men and women have their own separate but cooperative spheres. American white laundrymen, with the stress on scientific knowledge and modem technology, distinguished themselves from women doing laundry. Indeed they were civilized men by using machines to save women's energy and thus protect women. The Chinese laundrymen, however, crossed over into the women's sphere by outright imitation of women's ways, which was a sign of a savage society without a clear gender division. Moreover, the Chinese laundrymen were regarded as preindustrial figures by using primitive methods, tools, and management, specifically such an unhealthy and uncivilized way as mouth-sprinkling. Sometimes, Chinese laundrymen were portrayed as rats-eaters, another uncivilized behavior, to reduce their living expenses and thus lowered their laundry prices. Fighting against the Chinese hand laundries, these white power laundrymen thus claimed their authority in the laundry trade by drawing connections between male power and white supremacy.

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