Keywords: Men’s Liberation of Social Gender Roles and Double Rebellion. Jia Baoyu in "A Dream of Red Mansions" is an image of a rebel within the feudal aristocratic class and a newcomer on the eve of the collapse of feudal society. This has almost become the majority of people today. The ultimate knowledge for researchers and enthusiasts of red science. And when we reread "A Dream of Red Mansions" against the background of men's emancipation of their minds, we will find that Cao Xueqin's creation of the character Jia Baoyu reveals the subversion of traditional male social gender roles. Let us try to take a closer look at Baoyu's image from the perspective of men's liberation. (1) Jia Baoyu betrayed the gender role consciousness that "men should have a successful career." The ideal man under the Confucian cultural concept should be: cultivate one's morality, manage one's family, govern the country, and bring peace to the world. Jia Baoyu is a figure who has high hopes for his family. Jia Zheng and others' expectations for Baoyu are naturally to "deepen his career", rise to the top, and honor his ancestors. However, Jia Baoyu despised fame and wealth throughout his life and hated the so-called "official career economy" most. This kind of "not thinking about progress" is contrary to the requirements of traditional social gender roles on men. For Jia Baoyu, the opposite of fame is "Feng Yue Poetry and Wine", and he is immersed in it and enjoys himself. In the fifth chapter, Baoyu followed the Qin family to find a place to take a nap. He went to the room first and saw a painting and a couplet hanging on it. The painting was "Burning Quinoa", which showed Liu Xiangqin studying hard, and the couplet was "Worldly Affairs". Insight is knowledge, and knowledge is knowledge." Baoyu hurriedly said: "Get out quickly, get out quickly!" He is so disgusted with fame. If anyone advises him to take the economic path, he will denounce him as "bastard talk", which also shows his temperament. (2) Jia Baoyu subverted the gender role requirement of "men stay away from women". In the norms of traditional social gender roles, boys have been taught that they are different from girls since childhood, and they should keep a distance from women. If a "mature" man hangs out with women all day long, he will be considered "worthless" and indulge in the love of his children. Jia Baoyu ignored all this. He spent all day hanging out with girls, which was actually the main content of his life. In Shi Xiangyun's words, "When you grow up, you will only be in our group." And Xiren also said in Chapter 34: "He tends to make trouble in our team." Jia's mother therefore said: "It must have been a girl who was reborn by mistake." Men should do men's things, and of course it is to seek fame. But Jia Baoyu was interested in what girls did. This may be due to his awareness of gender equality. Baoyu had the respect for women required by men's liberation. He once said: "It turns out that humans are born as the spirits of all things. All mountains, rivers, sun and moon are beautiful, and they only care about daughters. Men with eyebrows are just scum." He even said It is believed that "men are flesh and blood made of mud, and women are flesh and blood made of water." The world of men is like a market of abalone, and the world of women is like a house of orchids. His view of equality in interacting with women and his love for women are expressed through many details. In Chapter 21, Baoyu washes his face with the water that Xiangyun used to wash his face. This is definitely not tolerated by the traditional image of a "big man". For women with low social status, Baoyu also has no concept of being superior to others as a man or "master". For example, Qingwen loves to eat tofu skin buns, so he specially sets them aside for her, and even covers Qingwen's hands when the weather is cold. Another example is that in Chapter 20, Baoyu shaved She Yue's hair; another example is that when Fang'er combed her hair, Baoyu "hurriedly ordered him to change his makeup, and ordered him to shave off the short hair around him to reveal his green scalp." These details show his delicate care for women. (3) Jia Baoyu challenged the role positioning of "masculine men". China's traditional social gender roles have clear regulations on the differences between men and women. Men's "masculinity" corresponds to women's "femininity." In order to create this different gender image, men and women have different game content at an early age, but Jia Baoyu wants to break this difference. Chapter 62: Xiangling and others were fighting with grass. "But Qiao Baoyu saw them fighting with grass and found some flowers and plants to join in the fun." In this kind of girls' game, Baoyu is probably the only male in Rongning's second house who would be keen to participate. The love of beauty has always been the preserve of women. Men who love beauty will be regarded as "girlish" and be looked down upon. But Jia Baoyu likes to wear exquisite embroidered bags and beautiful clothes. Let’s look at the description of Jia Baoyu’s appearance for the first time in the third chapter: “The face is like the moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the color is like the flowers of spring dawn, the temples are like knife cuts, the eyebrows are like ink paintings, the face is like peach petals, and the eyes are like autumn waves. Although he is angry sometimes If she smiles, she looks angry and affectionate. "She looks like a feminine figure." As for Rouge, who likes to eat girls, she interprets this femininity to the extreme.
The section "Baoyu Buries Flowers" is even more "feminine" and can also be said to be full of "both genders": Baoyu "digged a hole with a branch for the husband and wife Huihui and Bingdi Ling just now, and first grabbed some fallen flowers. After laying the groundwork, we reconciled the water chestnuts, covered up some fallen flowers, and buried them with a handful of earth." This move was a replica of Lin Daiyu's burial of flowers. Jia Baoyu is recognized as a passionate young man, and this passion is exactly what the masculine image of men does not tolerate. It is another betrayal of Jia Baoyu's traditional male gender roles. As for Jia Baoyu's love for crying, because it best embodies the concept of men's liberation, we will discuss it later. (4) Jia Baoyu ignored the gender shaping of "mature and prudent men". To this day, "mature and prudent" and "mature and stable" men are still the "ideal men" under the requirements of social gender roles, while Baoyu "slandered monks and slandered the Tao", using In Xiren's words, it means "speaking without regard for taboos." This kind of free and unconstrained temperament is also the ideal in the minds of male liberationists. (5) Baoyu rebelled against the "gentlemen's friendship" of male friendship. Under traditional social gender roles, the profound friendship between men is suppressed. Confucian culture emphasizes that "the friendship between gentlemen is as light as water." Looking at the concept of men's liberation, this avoidance of intimate friendship between men is rooted in the masculine image of men. Men are considered to be extremely strong and can bear all the yoke on their own. However, tenderness, sweetness, and intimate interactions will make men appear too "sentimental" and damage their "tough guy" image. Therefore, intimate friendships like those between women are prohibited in the world of men. In addition, the distance between men is also caused by "homophobia", that is, the fear that men who interact too closely will be regarded as gay couples. Jia Baoyu never wanted to play a "tough guy". He subverted this ideal male image and at the same time subverted homophobia. The "brotherhood" between Baoyu and Qin Zhong can be described as profound. When he was granted the title of Jin Dynasty in Yuanchun, "Ningrong and Ning have been very lively recently, and everyone is so proud. He alone regards him as if he is nothing, and does not mind at all. Therefore, everyone laughs at him and becomes more and more stupid." "Why don't you mind, because Qin Zhong's father died of illness, and Qin Zhong was also critically ill. He has close relationships with Jiang Yuhan, Liu Xianglian and others, which highlights his friendship with the same sex. In fact, Jia Baoyu's relationship with the same sex is only at the level of friendship, not homosexuality. Therefore, it is completely different from Xue Pan's "inciting the rise of Longyang", and even completely inconsistent with Qin Zhong and Xiang Lian's "winking and giving secret signals", and even more inconsistent with Jia Lian's "temporary selection of handsome young men among them" "Out of Fire" are very different. Throughout the entire book "Dream of Red Mansions", although there are many descriptions of same-sex sex, even the highly suggestive sentences in Chapter 15 only seem to have the layer of suggesting sexual play between same-sex, rather than a true homosexual relationship. (6) Jia Baoyu’s crying and sexual temperament In the entire "Dream of Red Mansions", apart from Lin Daiyu, the one who sheds the most tears is Jia Baoyu. People can understand Lin Daiyu's crying from the feminine side of women, while Jia Baoyu's crying will be criticized because it does not meet the requirements of male social gender roles. "Dream of Red Mansions" writes that Liu Xianglian became a monk, and Xue Pan went to look for him but couldn't find him. He came back and said: "I'm not afraid of your jokes. I couldn't find him and even cried." It can be seen that men crying is indeed a "joke" thing. . The ideal male in traditional society is strong. "A man will not shed tears easily" is the most direct manifestation of society's requirements for us. Male liberationism has questioned the positioning of this gender role. They say: crying is a natural reflection of physiology and a process of self-healing. Men's nervous systems are the same as women's, so why can't we cry when we feel sad? Men can shed tears even if they have tears. In the first 80 chapters, Baoyu's crying is explicitly mentioned 19 times, and all of them are exaggerated, which is unique among men in the book. Baoyu's tendency to cry was inconceivable to many people around her. Sister Feng called her "mother-in-law". But if we study carefully why he cried, we will find that the pattern is very obvious. The first time Jia Baoyu cried was in the third chapter. Because he heard that Lin Daiyu also had no jade, he "immediately became insane. He took off the jade and threw it away... Baoyu cried with tears on his face: "I don't have any older sisters at home, but I have one, and I think it's boring. Now that I have such a fairy-like sister, I don't have one, so I know this is not a good thing. '"In the final analysis, I was crying because of the girls, crying because of Lin Daiyu, and crying because I was dissatisfied with these "people made of water". The second time I cried was in Chapter 11, listen to When Mrs. Qin said that she “might not survive the New Year”, “the tears started to flow down unknowingly.
"Sister Feng said: "Brother Bao, you are so indebted to your mother-in-law. The third time he cried, it was "It is said that Qin Zhong died, and Baoyu cried bitterly." "Crying because of death is reasonable. The whole book clearly states that Baoyu cried because of this only twice, namely Qin Keqing and Qin Zhong. The former was a pure and pure woman in Baoyu's eyes, and the latter was his close friend. Again. The one crying related to death was when she dreamed of Qingwen's death and woke up crying. But when Jia Jing, who belonged to the ranks of "stinky men", died, everyone cried bitterly, but did not mention Baoyu. On the day of the funeral, "Jia's mother still didn't cry." After recovering from illness, Baoyu was left to serve at home." This shows that there is one less opportunity to cry for "righteousness." From this alone, we can see that Baoyu's tears are mostly for women, and mostly for some people who are not worthy of crying. Of course, the one who made him cry the most was Lin Daiyu: If it is understandable that he cried because of his crush on Daiyu, then in Chapter 43, he entered Shuixian Temple and saw the clay statue. , feeling "as graceful as a startled dragon" and "unconsciously bursting into tears". There is only one explanation for crying for the clay sculpture. Baoyu really regarded the "as graceful as a startled dragon" clay sculpture as the Goddess of Luo, and he was a young woman. Only women can cry like this. Baoyu only cried for his daughter, and he often cried because of the distance between himself and the girls. For example, when they got into a fight in the ninth chapter, he not only cried. He doesn't cry, and he is very "masculine". Therefore, crying here becomes an important means for Cao Xueqin to shape Jia Baoyu's character. What we also need to note is that Baoyu's crying in Cao Xueqin's writings is mostly "get off." The very feminine way of crying, "tears come", "drop tears", "sigh with tears", is consistent with Jia Baoyu's overall image, and reflects his characteristics as a "contemporary" image. Baoyu's tendency to cry , is extremely inconsistent with the image of the "ideal man", and reflects the temperament of traditional female roles, but it is precisely because of this total ***38 times of crying that it depicts an important side of Jia Baoyu who abandons traditional gender roles. His girl-like temperament is consistent with his preference for the company of girls. Jia Baoyu's betrayal is the unity of class rebellion and social gender role rebellion. It is this dual rebellion that determines the thoroughness of his betrayal and also the nature of his betrayal. References: 1. "The Liberation of Men" by Fang Gang, 1999 edition by China Overseas Chinese Publishing House 2. "Selected Translations of Gender Studies" edited by Wang Zheng and Du Fangqin, 1998 edition by Sanlian Bookstore 3. "Women: The Longest Revolution" edited by Li Yinhe and others, 1997 edition of Sanlian Bookstore 4. "Sea Biology Report? Men's Volume" written by Sally Haite, translated by Lin Ruiting, 1998 edition of Future Publishing House 5. "Fragile Men" Qiao Is? Borazes, translated by Lin Ning and Ma Shuo, 1989 edition by Xueyuan Press 6. "International Women's Movement 1789-1989" by Min Dongchao, 1991 edition by Henan People's Publishing House 7. "Long Talk on the Red Chamber" by Zhang Bilai , People's Literature Publishing House, 1980 edition 8. "Twelve Essays on the Red Chamber" by Zhang Jinchi, Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House, 1982 edition 9. ""A Dream of Red Mansions" and "Jin Ping Mei"" by Sun Xun and Chen Zhao, Ningxia People's Publishing House, 1982 edition