殖民時期女性「疾病」、「身體」與「健康」的符號運作策略與論述建構：以《臺灣日日新報》女性醫藥廣告為例

The Semiotic Strategies and Discursive Construction of Women’s “Disease,” “Body,” and “Health” in the Colonial Period: Taking Women’s Medicines Advertisements of Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpo (Taiwan Daily News) as Examples

本文以日治時期《臺灣日日新報》女性醫藥廣告為例，分析廣告如何建構關於女性「疾病」、「身體」以及「健康」的論述。研究發現，女性藥品廣告符號運作的主要策略是並列傳統漢醫病名與新藥，宣稱療效。意即，古病名、新藥醫。「月經」被視為一種生病的過程，其之為符號則指涉了「子宮病」，「歇斯底里」乃是其延伸義。「調經」更被定義為女性最重要的保健治療方法，在廣告圖文符號安排下，與「按月用藥」之間產生了符號連結。除將女性的身體過度疾病化、鞏固女人為弱之性別刻板印象。廣告主運用了「西方」蘊涵現代與「日本」指涉進步的修辭策略，誇大新式製藥的療效，以說服消費者，深深影響了臺灣民眾關於性別、身體與用藥等概念。

The present study analyzes how the discourses of women’ s “ disease,”“ body,” and“ health” were constructed in the women’ s medicines advertisements in Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpo (Taiwan Daily News) during Japanese Occupation Period. The study finds that the major semiotic strategy of these advertisements was to align the traditional Chinese medical terms of illness with modern medicines, and claim their healing efficacy, i.e., illnesses with ancient names cured by these modern pharmaceutical products. “ Menstruation” was portrayed as pathological; while as a sign, it signified the “ uterine disease,” and “ hysteria” was its connotation. Regulating the menstrual cycle was defined as the major method of health care and treatment for women. Due to the arrangement of pictorial-linguistic signs, “ regulating menstrual cycle” was therefore linked to“ monthly medication.” Besides excessively medicalizing female bodies and stereotyping women as fragile, the advertisers employed the rhetorical strategy of implying that “ the West” was modern and “ Japan” progressive. Thus, they exaggerated the healing efficacy of new drugs in order to persuade consumers to buy new pharmaceutical products, and thence cast a major influence on Taiwanese people’ s concepts of gender, body and medication.