經前症候群在台灣的建構過程與性別政治，1950-2006

The Social Construction and Gender Politics of Premenstrual Syndrome in Taiwan, 1950-2006

陳瑩娟(Yin-Chuan, Chen)

指導教授 ： 王秀雲

高雄醫學大學/護理學院/性別研究所/碩士(2007年)

https://doi.org/10.6832/KMU.2007.00108

摘要

本研究採取論述分析的方式，藉由報章雜誌、醫普書籍、學術期刊等文本材料，來描繪「經前症候群」(premenstrual syndrome, PMS)這個現代西方生物醫學概念，在台灣特定歷史社會脈絡裡的建構發展；同時，探究經前症候群醫療化過程裡，性別、醫療、身體三者之間相互形塑的關係。
早在1950年代，台灣的報章雜誌裡就有零星翻譯自國外的經前症候群文章，然而，當時它並未立即成為通用的知識。直到1970年代以後，女性的經前變化，才由過去零碎、重疊、本質化的身體現象，逐漸轉變為整體、獨立、病理化的經前症候群概念。
在這個過程裡，診斷標準的確立、病因理論的發展、治療藥物的應用，及機構制度的設立，強化醫療專業對該議題的發言權及介入的正當性，同時也影響人們理解對待身體的方式。除了透過大眾媒介積極發聲，醫療照護專業更進一步透過臨床診療、學術研究的機會，接近、觀察、描繪並介入女性身體；同時，也將帶有性別意涵的生物醫學觀點傳遞出去。一方面，女性被塑造為與男性截然不同、受荷爾蒙主宰的非理性動物；另一方面，經前症候群概念的界定，也同時顯現出主流社會對理想女性特質的高度要求。
醫療論述不僅被動地反映既有的性別意識形態，更主動地回應社會秩序的變動。面對1980年代之後女性公私領域的角色轉換及地位提升，經前症候群醫療化論述選擇性地呈現中產階級女性形象，一方面，問題化女性工作能力，以確保公私領域的男女位階；同時更透過強調身體細節記錄、生活型態管理等規訓策略，來打造符合當代資本父權體制需求的「現代女性身體」。

關鍵字

經前症候群 ； 醫療化 ； 醫療論述 ； 女性身體 ； 性別政治

並列摘要

Drawing on medical literature and the popular press, this thesis examines ‘premenstrual syndrome (PMS)’ as both cultural construct and physiological transition. I explore PMS in relation to medical theory, clinical practice, and women's changing role in the Taiwanese society in the period between the 1950s and the present.
As early as 1950s, a few translated articles about PMS had appeared in newspapers and magazines in Taiwan. However, PMS did not become a popular knowledge until the1970s. Women’s premenstrual changes shifted from being a fragmentary, overlapped, and often only partially articulated experience to medical concept that acquired a separate pathological entity.
The medical professions (psychiatry, nursing, ob/gyn, and public health) consolidated their authority over PMS through several strategies, including establishing diagnostic standards and prescriptions, developing theories of aetiology, and initiating new specialized clinics devoted to PMS. In addition to writing for the popular press, medical and health professionals observed women and their bodies by carrying out clinical and research projects on PMS. They popularized the biomedical model of women’s body that was loaded with gendered implications. Women were seen as hormone-dominated creatures who were essentially different from men; and the definition of PMS reveals socially prescribed femininity that dictated women should be submissive and agreeable.
Medical discourses on PMS not only reflected gender ideologies, but they also responded to the issue of women’s place in a rapidly industrialized society. After 1980s when women’s participation in the public domain was gaining attention, medical discourses on PMS targeted at the newly emerged middle-class working women. In this way, medicine helped problematize women’s proper place in the society and reinforced gender inequality. Finally, both popular self-help literature and physicians’ recommendations encouraged women who were experiencing PMS to self-monitor their bodies and follow a certain health regimen, which were critical to the production of the docile ‘modern female body’ in a patriarchal-capitalist society.

並列關鍵字

premenstrual syndrome ； PMS ； medicalization ； medical discourse ； gender politics

參考文獻

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