젠더·성·역사 = Gender, Sex and History

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article describes the historical process by which the identification of the categories of sex and gender emerged, and the creation of a distinction between the two. This thesis is based on the influence of media, predominantly of alphabetical writing systems, on the organization of society and the codification of the symbolic order of the sexes. The paper provides a description of the impact of the alphabet, which has far fewer characters than pictorial writing systems, and can comparatively be easily learned by all people assisting in the creation of democratic systems, and also on a form of thought that draws a sharp line between logical, rational and 'scientific' thinking and al things considered to belong to 'irrational' otherness. Dichotomous rationality is equated with the written word and otherness or irrationality are equated with the fleeting oral language. Through its 'sexualization' this division - a cultural and theoretical division - becomes 'naturalized' and 'essential'. The female body comes to symbolize the spoken language, closely linked to the frail and mortal body, whereas the male body is thought of as a symbol of logical thinking, or the immortal written word. This dichotomy became the basis for many social and other regulations concerning masculinity, femininity and the order of the sexes, so much so that finally the symbolic was taken to represent a law based on 'nature'. Logical thinking in turn became the norm and assumed a position as 'normality', whereas femininity, including otherness and irrationality which is linked to the 'speaking body', came to be thought of as abnormal and thus closely related to concepts of illness: a phenomenon which becomes especially readable in the volatile and highly sexualized history of hysteria.
Even though the 'female' aspects of repressed history and memory play an important role in our collective identity it is only rarely brought to light and deciphered. This paper reveals the ways that Gender Studies can play an important role in the 'decryptation' of this knowledge and memory.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 사회와 알파벳 문자
• Ⅱ. 집단의 몸(공동체), 개인의 몸
• Ⅲ. '정상적' 신체와 비정상의 증상
• 참고문헌
• Abstract