“피와 젖으로 봉인된, 오래된 권력의 마지막 조각”: 『성의 변증법』과 『시간의 경계에 선 여자』에 나타난 인공생식

Abstract

Procreation and reproduction are essential activities for human beings to sustain and continue. Therefore, worth of women, in patriarchal society, mostly has come from being a mother, that is to say, 'motherhood,' and 'motherhood' has readily been reduced to 'womb' and 'breast.' There have existed various opinions and positions around the issues of gestation and birth, in which sexuality and sexual difference are involved, and on which gender oppressions are founded, and they are still fought over within and without feminism. 'Right to give birth' and 'Right not to give birth' have been claimed along the issues of contraception, abortion, infertility/subfertility treatments, adoption, etc. Radical feminists have seen gestation, child-bearing, and child-rearing, as the foundational causes of gender oppression and inequality. This paper explores, as a representative radical feminist idea, Shulamith Firestone's vision of Cybernetic Communism society presented in The Dialectic of Sex. In the society, women are liberated from 'child-bearing' and 'child-rearing' by means of artificial reproduction and community care of children. Furthermore this paper analyzes Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time, which is considered as a faithful novel adaptation of Firestone's idea. While this paper examines how these two revolutionary works are similar and where they diverge, it intends to explore what Firestone and Piercy wanted to claim about these 'feminine' experiences and in what way technology can contribute to improving gender equality. This paper interprets differences between Firestone and Piercy in their vision of future society as resulting from those between radical-libertarian feminism, which posits androgynous being as ideal, and radical-cultural feminism, which cherishes essential feminine quality uncontaminated by patriarchal oppression. Finally, while Firestone expects the desired future will come by itself, more or less, out of the patriarchal society's contradictions, Piercy puts more emphasis on efforts of awakened individuals, making it more than a flat and dogmatic representation of the former.