Pluralism as Cover: Gender Mainstreaming and the Political Unconscious in Taiwan

Pluralism as Cover: Gender Mainstreaming and the Political Unconscious in Taiwan

Standing amid the ruinsof the “gender equality mainstreaming”ofthe past twenty years, we are obligedto probe into our history, to contextualize the status quo and the past, and to examine current conditionsfrom our current position. My premise in this articleis that conflicts over“gender politics”and “gender/sexual politics”in Taiwan are not merely the result ofontology, but insteadhave anepistemological basis and political frameworkalong two different “lines”that are radically different, givingrise toasituation filled with continuous struggle. This circumstance cannot be, as some simplistic claimsfollowingthe logic of “(state) feminism”have it, summed up merely as “friction between factions”;neither as “women’s movement excludes (assumed as naturally born) lesbians/gays,”nor de-contextualized as “women’s movement accommodates lesbians/gays”and“liberation of women means liberation of lesbians/gays.”If this logic is assumed, discussions on gender/sexual politics can only take placeon two clearly separated sides, “feminism”(gender diversity) and “lesbian/gay”(sexual liberation), which is itself problematic.