女女同盟：《失聲畫眉》的情欲再現與性別政治

Female Alliance: Representations of Sexutality and Gender Politics in The Silent Thrush

本文分析台灣現存最早的女同志電影《失聲畫眉》（1992），探討台灣社會中恐同的意識形態如何作用於女同志電影批評上，同時也將指出影片中女同志情欲與女性身體展演，如何一方面凸顯了女同志與女性的主體性與能動性，而另一方面也反映了兩者共通的性別弱勢處境，並藉此種女同志與異性戀女性「女女同盟」的影像敘事，反映出在台灣既有的文化脈絡中，女同志有別於男同志的性別位置與位階，修正酷兒研究中常忽略的性別觀點。本文認為《失聲畫眉》電影透過赤裸的女同志情欲和女體再現模式，破除主流性別體制作用於異性戀女性與女同志情欲展演的污名與效力，豎立女同志T、婆和異性戀女性的欲望主體與能動性，突破男性凝視的枷鎖與中產階級品味。同時也連結了異性戀女性與女同志生存處境，以「女女同盟」的敘事連結形塑複雜多元的鄉土女同志與底層女性主體，也蘊含了豐富的美學與政治潛力。然而，本文也將指出在當年的父權體制與異性戀文化脈絡下，「女女同盟」所面臨的困境與侷限。藉由重新評估《失聲畫眉》電影的性別政治意涵與歷史定位，冀能在以男同志為主的華語同志電影研究中，開拓女同志電影的研究版圖。

 

This essay analyzes Taiwan’s first lesbian film The Silent Thrush (1992). It investigates the influence of homophobia in Taiwan’s society over lesbian film criticism and how the film’s depiction of lesbian desire and performance of female body highlight the subjectivity and agency of lesbian and female, while revealing the social inferiority of lesbians and straight women. Standing on the film narrative of female alliance, the essay identifies the distinct position and condition of lesbians within Taiwan’s cultural and social context in comparison to their gay counterparts, so as to foreground gender perspectives which queer studies usually neglects. Through laying bare modes of representation of lesbian desire and female body, as this essay argues, The Silent Thrush destructs the social stigma that mainstream gender hierarchy has imposed on the performance of heterosexual and lesbian female desire. By affirming lesbian and female subjectivity and agency, this film disrupts the restrictions of male gaze and bourgeois taste. Such an articulation of living conditions of both heterosexual female and lesbians informs a narrative connection that formulates complex and diversified rural lesbian and lower class female subjectivity embedded with abundant aesthetic and political potential. The essay also points out difficulties and limitations which female alliance would face in the contexts of heteropatriarchy during the time when this film was produced. In reconsidering the meaning of and historical position of gender politics in The Silent Thrush, this paper aims to expand contemporary lesbian film studies in Sinophone queer film studies of which the mainstream is gay films.