신자유주의 시대와 젠더무의식 (The Neoliberal Era and Gender/Unconsciousness)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 계명대학교 여성학연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 젠더와 문화 / 4권 / 2호 / 37 ~ 70페이지
· 저자명 : 임옥희

초록

신자유주의 시대에 이르러, 개인이 누리는 자유는 자본주의 시장에서 누리는 자유다. 개인적인 선택의 자유가 확장되면, 선택에 대한 책임 또한 개인의 몫이 된다. 사회 영역이 축소될수록, 사회안정망은 위축되고, 불확실한 삶이 지배하게 된다. 불확실한 삶은 인식론적인 불확실성을 동반하게 된다. 가족, 모성, 가정마저 더 이상 안정된 공간이 아니다. 이처럼 젠더 이해관계가 달려 있는 문제와 대면하게 됨으로써, 젠더들이 느끼는 불안, 분노, 두려움 등은 타자의 담론으로서 젠더/무의식을 형성하게 된다. 이때 젠더무의식은 젠더의 이해관계가 첨예하게 충돌할 때면 어김없이 돌아오는 것이다.
젠더무의식은 다양한 모습으로 전이된다. 남성의 응시 아래 위협적인 여성은 팜프 파탈이 된다. 이와는 대조적으로 신자유주의 시대 젊은 여성들의 무의식적인 생존전략은 귀염떨기 전략이다. 이 글의 목적은 신자유주의 시대 젠더무의식의 구조를 조명하고 여성들의 생존전략인 귀염떨기(유혹, 가장무도회) 수행을 분석하는 것이다.

영어초록

In the era of neoliberalism, the freedom of individuals is only exercised as freedom in a capitalist market. Personal freedom in this sense is not different from the free competition of the market. As the freedom of personal choice expands, responsibility for the choices is transferred entirely over to the individual. With the reduction of the power of the social sphere, it has been impossible to prevent the curtailment of the social safety net. Because people are losing their safe-havens from the vagaries of the market, uncertainty has become the chief characteristic and governing principle of people’s lives. The uncertainty of everyday life is accompanied by epistemological uncertainty. In this neoliberal era, the market itself has been determining the shape of what is sometimes thought of as “raditional gendered-roles.” Family, motherhood and the home are no longer stable spaces. The anxiety, anger and fear experienced by gendered-subjects in this age of neoliberalism construct gender/unconsciousness as the discourse of the other.
Our received concepts of patriarchal ideology have lost their explanatory power on account of these changing circumstances. As the new wine must be contained in a new bottle, feminism in this neoliberal era also needs to be conceptualized in a new way. To this end, this paper suggests a new term, gender/unconsciousness. The gender/unconsciousness tries to return to the surface of consciousness at the critical moment of gender struggle. The gender/unconsciousness is manifested in diverse forms. The threatening female under the gaze of males becomes a femme fatale. The main characteristics of a femme fatale resist against the male’s desire to know what women want. In contrast, the unconscious survival strategy used among young women of the neoliberal period is “playing cute.” Superficially, cute women seem quite different from the threatening femme fatale. However, they are two sides of a coin. The purpose of this essay is to shed light on the structure of gender/unconsciousness and to analyze the so called “playing cute” (seduction, masquerade) as a survival strategy employed by women in this neoliberal period.

참고자료

· 없음