The study focuses on the profanity use among Chinese women factory workers from the perspective of emotions. Chinese factories often employ an authoritarian, patriarchal regime to manage workers. In the factory setting, the everyday language of emotions can be presented in the form of profanity. Although swearing has been considered a predominately masculine activity, women workers on the shop floor swore behind the managers’ backs in response to the insults and scolding. They usually mixed up several curse words in one sentence to make their statement emotionally satisfactory in front of other workers. Through the lens of profanity use, the research seeks to understand how emotions are intertwined with power relations on the shop floor and how the interaction shapes women workers’ experiences of gender. Methodologically, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in a Chinese electronics factory for 6 months. To better serve the purpose of researching the individual and collective emotional worlds, I chose to participate extensively in women workers’ work lives by working alongside my participants in the production line. The findings show that women workers actively resisted the unequal treatment and structure via swearing; at the same time, the collective shop-floor regime constantly taught individuals to perform emotions by swearing, during which process the patriarchal structure was reproduced. Women workers further found that they could only justify their anger and aggression in such expressions. As swearing was considered vulgar and masculine, it also aroused women workers’ sense of shame based on their gender identity.

Authors:
Chengzhi Xiang, University of Bristol, United Kingdom

About the Presenter(s)
Chengzhi Xiang is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

Bookmark