向前一步:第195期 让我们开始讨论吧(1)

 Chapter 10 Let's Start Talking About It 第10章 让我们开始讨论吧

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to go through life without being labeled by my gender¹. 有时候我想知道，如果没被贴上女性标签，我的生活会是怎样。

I don't wake up thinking, What am I going to do today as Facebook's female COO?, but that's often how I'm referred to by others. 我肯定不会醒来就想：“作为脸谱网的女性首席运营官，今天我要做些什么？”别人提到我时常常这么说。

When people talk about a female pilot, a female engineer, or a female race car driver, the word "female" implies a bit of surprise. 尤其当人们讨论女飞行员、女工程师或是女赛车手时，“女”这个字眼都带着点惊讶的意味。

Men in the professional world are rarely seen through this same gender lens. 但是，人们极少用同样的性别放大镜去观察专业世界里的男性。

A Google search for "Facebook's male CEO" returns this message: "No results found." 用谷歌搜索“脸谱网的男性首席执行官”，你将看到的是：“没有你要找的结果”。

As Gloria Steinem observed, "Whoever has power takes over the noun — and the norm — while the less powerful get an adjective." 格洛丽亚·斯泰纳姆曾说过：“名词和规范由权高位重者掌管，位卑言轻者只能拥有形容词。”

Since no one wants to be perceived as less powerful, a lot of women reject the gender identification and insist, 谁也不想被看作位卑言轻者，所以很多女性会拒绝性别认定，主张

"I don't see myself as a woman; I see myself as a novelist/athlete/professional/fill-in-the-blank." “我没把自己当女人看，我把自己看成小说家/运动员/专业人士/（此处请填空）”。

They are right to do so. 她们做得很对。

No one wants her achievements modified. 没有人希望自己的成就被看低，

Yet the world has a way of reminding women that they are women, and girls that they are girls. 然而，这个世界总会提醒女性“你们是女人”，提醒女孩“你们是女孩”。

In between my junior and senior years of high school, I worked as a page in Washington, D.C., for my hometown congressman², William Lehman. 在升高中前的那个暑假，我曾在华盛顿为我的同乡、国会议员威廉·莱曼做些打杂的工作，

The Speaker of the House at the time was the legendary³ Massachusetts representative Tip O'Neill, 当时的众议院议长是富有传奇色彩的马萨诸塞州议员蒂普·奥尼尔。

 

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

3 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。