Rohden Fabíola
Centro Latino-Americano em Sexualidade e Direitos Humanos, Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20559-900, Brasil.
Cad Saude Publica. 2003;19 Suppl 2:S201-12. doi: 10.1590/s0102-311x2003000800002. Epub 2004 Mar 8.
This article discusses the work of some key players in the current debate on the construction of the notion of sexual difference in modernity, taking as the focus of analysis and illustration the theses submitted at the School of Medicine in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the 19th century. The objective is to confront the argument that the difference between the sexes comes to be taken for granted and considered immutable by science. This emphasis on a natural difference between the sexes is related to transformations that occurred beginning in the late 18th century (growing industrialization and urbanization, more extensive participation by women in the labor market, the emergence of women's rights movements) that required changes in the established gender relations. Still, it is precisely through the attempts to prove that the difference was natural that one perceives how unstable and threatening it was. Interventions such as women's education and labor market participation were capable of altering and even "subverting" the difference. Thus, "natural" was not synonymous with definitive or guaranteed.
本文探讨了当前关于现代性中性别差异概念构建辩论中的一些关键人物的工作，以19世纪巴西里约热内卢医学院提交的论文为分析和例证的重点。目的是反驳那种认为性别差异被科学视为理所当然且不可改变的观点。对两性自然差异的这种强调与始于18世纪后期的变革有关（工业化和城市化的发展、女性在劳动力市场中更广泛的参与、妇女权利运动的出现），这些变革要求改变既定的性别关系。然而，恰恰是通过试图证明这种差异是自然的尝试，人们才察觉到它是多么不稳定和具有威胁性。诸如女性教育和劳动力市场参与等干预措施能够改变甚至“颠覆”这种差异。因此，“自然的”并非确定性或保障性的同义词。
