March 25 『オルタナティヴ・ハードロックにおけるジェンダー操作』 Rockin' Out of the Box: Gender Maneuvering in Alternative Hard Rock_by Mimi Schippers

March 24, 2009 (Wednesday)

   モーリちゃんを小学校まで迎えに行って帰ってきて書いています（カリフォルニア時間現在15時55分）。

　　なんで買ったのかなんで注文したのか今になるとよく覚えていない本というのがある、その2。ではあるけれど、これはつらつら考えるとまた「おお、スザンナ」からライン・ダンス問題で勝手に個人的に喚起された音楽のジェンダー・ロールについてなんかおもしろい本はないかと探していて求めた本だったのだと思います（そうとしか思えませんｗ）。

　　Mimi Schippers (1964- ).  Rockin' Out of the Box: Gender Maneuvering in Alternative Hard Rock.  New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2002.  209pp.

    著者のミミさんは当時ミシガン州のアルビオン・カレッジの助教授で、社会学の先生。この本は、分類上は、社会学／ジェンダー研究／カルチュラル・スタディーズというところです。ジェンダー（性差）とセックス（性）は別物で、ジェンダーというのはしょっちゅう変動するパフォーマンスだというところからオルタナティヴ・ハードロックのひとたち（男女）のジェンダー・ロールとかジェンダー・トランスグレッションとかについて、研究します。実際にインタヴューを行なったバンドやミュージシャンのリストは、モーリちゃんの父には、残念ながら、ほとんどなじみのないものなのでした。（1990年代前半に活躍した人たちだと思うのだけれど・・・・・・イカカッコ内はバンド名）――Ian Mackaye (Fugazi), Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Donita Sparks & Jennifer Finch (L7), Kate Bjelland & Lori Barbero (Babes in Toyland), Rose Marshack (Poster Children), Louise Post & Nina Gordon (Veruca Salt), Liz Davis & Valerie Agnew (7 Year Bitch)など。

　　"gender maneuve(u)r" というのは20年以上前にフェミニズム論文集で見たフレーズだけれど、なんと訳すべきなのか思い出せません。

　　思えば、ロックはもともとはハードじゃん、と思いつつもヘヴィメタとかなんとか言われるころからロックを聴かなくなってジャズとクラシックに転向したモーリちゃんの父なのであった（あはは）。著者はモーリちゃんの父母世代と変わらないのだけれど、なんか10年以上ずれてるようで。

　　それで、主題によっては、複数の論者が書いた方が面白いとは言わずとも少なくとも啓発的になる場合があると思うのだが、この本は、社会学―フェミニズム―クイアー理論の線で押している本なのであった。

　　つらつら考えて、思い出したのだが、ほとんどこれもジャケ買いしたのでした（たぶん）。

　　しかし、本体に挿絵や写真は一葉もないのであった。だから、これはハードな研究書なのです。裏表紙に推薦の辞みたいなとして載っているのは、Sex and Sensibility: Stories of a Lesbian Generation （セックスとセンシビリティー〔このタイトルはジェーン・オースティンの『センス・アンド・センシビリティー』のもじりです〕――レズビアン世代の物語』の著者のArlene Stein というひとのことばなのだけれど、 "An astute analysis of rock music's gender politics that manages to be both perceptive and fun to read―a rare feat" と書かれています。

　　ジャケット・・・・・・買ってみたら（買ってみて初めてわかったのですが）、なんというか、上方のアヘ～といわんばかりのあごの三角形と下のデルタ地帯の三角形がひびき合っているようなわざとらしい写真なのでした。やれやれ。（写真は男の名前の Marc Pagani。〉　しかしこれが性の政治学をたぶん多分に体現しているのだろうからクリックすると拡大するようにスキャンします。　

クリックであへーと拡大するぞ

　　ちなみに、インデックスには"hotpants" はないけれど "miniskirts" というのが一ヶ所だけ(120-122)あって、それは著者がミニスカになる話なのでした。（イカとりあえず英語を日本語に訳す気はなく、またメモですので、読まずに無視してくださってけっこうです）――

     Being a good participant-observer, I was commited to adopting the subculture's styles even though miniskirts and hotpants were not my normal attire when I started this research.  The first time I went out to buy a miniskirt as part of my movement into the scene, I spent an embarrassingly long time in front of dressing room mirrors trying to find a skirt that didn't scream duped, male-identified ditz.  I went home empty-handed, thinking I just hadn't found the right one.  〔こんなふうに、なんというか、「個」が出てくるニュージャーナリズム風な文体なのだ。あんまり文学的とは思わんが〕
     The next time I went shopping, I took Maddie with me.  I put on the first skirt, which was a cotton and lycra, black tube skirt that was skintight and barely covered my ass―not unlike the dozens of skirts I had tried on my previous shopping excursion.  I sheepishly walked out of the dressing room and, much to my surpise, Maddie smile and said, "Yeah, baby."
     "I don't know," I answered squamishly.  My women's studies training kicked in.  "I don't think I'd be able to run in this."
     Flatly, as if to convey "Don't you get it?" Maddie said, "Put your boots on."  Despite being completely alone in the dressing room, I self-consciously pulled the skirt down as far as I could as I sat down on the built-in corner ledge.  I was certain that, as I reached my neck and cut off the oxygen.  I sort of leaned forward, tryig desperately to keep my legs together and the skirt somewhere in the vicinity of my pelvis〔骨盤〕.  It was, to say the least, very uncomfortable.  In retrospect, the discomfortwas less from the actual feel of the material on my body―for, despite my spastic body contortions, it remained snug on my legs and hips―and more about the meaning of the skirt.  It was about sexual objectification, which meant sexual acess, which felt a lot like having my sexuality exposed, which in turn felt like having my body exposed. 
     Shaking my head and considering moving my research topic to bowling leagues or a winter sport, I managed to get the boots onto my feet.  I stood and, once again, walked out.  The boots were heavy, sturdy, and felt powerful.  The skirt was tight, but had somehow become remarkably comfortable.  It hadn't snapped up to reveal my body, my sexuality.  I stepped in front of the mirror, and without much thought or self-awareness, struck a rather sassy pose, saying, "Yeah, baby."
     Maddie smiled and said, "I wanna fuck you, but I'm afraid you'd kick my ass."  Not only did I feel I could run; I felt like I could kick anybody's ass.  Putting on those boots transformed not only how the skirt looked, but how it felt.  And while I had worn the boots before, they felt different once I combinedthem with a miniskirt.  There was something about the transgression of combining or collasping the two images and embodied feelings that changed my miniskirts consciousness―including my embodied, feminist consciousness.
     I want to suggest that in addition to being an important componet to cultural maneuvering and subcultural boundary construction, these styles are an embodied experience as well.  That is, putting on a skintight miniskirt and big, clunky combat boots is not simply a visual contradiction; it is an embodied contradiction as well.  My own experience of this corporeal contradiction necessitated a reassessment of my feminist consciousness.  How could a sexually objectifying miniskirt, when combined with combat boots, feel more powerful than jeans?  I had assumed that wearing a miniskirt was incapacitating and objectifying.  It would limit mobility and would reduce my body to the status of sexual object.  But feeling sexy does sometimes feel powerful; and the boots also added power, mobility, and stability.  Unlike mainstream feminine couture, alternative hard-rock's hybrid did not sacrifice mobility, stability, and strength; they were instead now combined with sexual power, and the combination created a potent embodied and visual whole that increased the overall feeling of power in general.  I really did feel like I could kick anybody's ass.
     While I still think the world would be a much better place without miniskirts (unless, of course, men as well as women wore them), I no longer look at a woman in a miniskirt and think that she is a duped, male-identified ditz.  (Okay, if she's also wearing a pink pumps, the thought crosses my mind; but if she's wearing "sensible" shoes―and all girls know what I mean―I cut her a break.  If she's wearing boots of any kind I think, "Right on sister.  I'm all on top of that action.")
     It is, however, also true that feeling powerful is not the same thing as being on the advantageous side of interpersonal or structural power relations.  No matter how a person feels, she is still situated in relation to others interpersonally and structually, and the distribution of power, prestige and resources stems from our place in the social structure, not our feelings.  No matter how much I feel like I'm the millionaire CEO of a multinational corporation, my structural position does not allow me to reap the materialand social benefits of being a CEO.  Likewise, no matter how powerful I feel in my miniskirt and combat boots, I am still perceived as and occupy the social position of woman, which situates me in relation to others interpersonally and structually.  It is my structural location, not my feelings, that largely determine my relative power, resources, and prestige.  Thus, while the embodied feeling of power and its impact on my feminist consciousness is important, this is an individual experience and does little to transform the gender order in any direct way.  (120-123)

   索引が示している122ページのどこかで切ってしまうと、アホなネーサンみたいに誤解されかねないので、延長しました。この、個的な体験があたかも真理と切り結んでいるかのように記述する（まあ、最後に123ページでそれなりに相対化するわけだが）姿勢は、上の自分の言葉とはウラハラに文学以上に文学的な気もしなくもないですが、ところどころむつかしげなフレーズをのぞけば、文学的登場人物の語りのようなスタイルなのでした。

タグ：Rockin' Out of the Box Mimi Schippers gender maneuver