2016年经济学人 女孩成长 一场艰险的旅行(下)

 

For Peggy Orenstein, an American journalist, these are symptoms of a larger and more pernicious problem: “the pressure on young women to reduce their worth to their bodies and to see those bodies as a collection of parts that exist for others' pleasure”. In “Girls & Sex”, a wise and sharply argued look at how girls are navigating¹ “the complicated new landscape” of sex and sexuality, Ms Orenstein notes that unlike past feminists², who often protested against their sexual objectification, many of today's young women claim to find it empowering. “There are few times that I feel more confident about my body than when I wear a crop top and my boobs are showing and my legs are showing,” says Holly³, a college student. “I never feel more liberated⁴.”

对于佩吉·沃伦斯坦一个美国记者来说，这些都是更大更具危害性问题的表现—“年轻的女孩儿背负着一定的压力，她们将自己的价值体现仅限于自己的身体且视自己的身体为满足别人乐趣的一部分”。《女孩与性》讲述了女孩儿如何在性别和性相关“这个复杂的新领域”定位，见解独到。沃伦斯坦还提到，现在很多年轻女性声称性物化给了她们自主权，而不是像过去的女性那样反对性物化。大学生霍莉说道：“当我穿露脐装秀胸秀腿的时候我觉得很自信，无拘无束，其他时间很少有这种感觉。”

This hardly seems like progress, particularly when only certain bodies, those that are sexy to men, are allowed to be a source of pride. (Even Meghan Trainor's body-positive anthem⁵, “All About That Bass”, celebrates fuller bodies because “boys, they like a little more booty to hold at night.”) Yet both authors argue that girls are embracing their own sexualisation in part because they are living in a culture that prioritises women being “hot”. Just listen to Donald Trump⁶, America's Republican presidential front-runner, or try to find a female news presenter⁷ wearing a dress with sleeves.

这看起来并不像是进步，尤其是当特定的身材—那些男性觉得性感的身材，可以被当作是自豪感的来源的时候。（即使梅根·特雷纳的那首正能量满满的身材颂歌“All About That Bass”赞美了更丰满的身材，理由是“男孩们晚上更喜欢肥硕的屁屁（此处为歌词）”）然而作家们还是声称女孩子们在某种程度上还是喜欢自己的性化，因为她们生活在优待身材“火辣”的女性的文化中。听听美国共和党总统竞选人唐纳德·特朗普说的吧（特朗普在竞选中攻击希拉里，更是搬出希拉里的丈夫、前总统克林顿来反击她的“性别歧视”批评。其本人有性别歧视倾向），或者试着找找那些穿长袖裙的新闻女主播吧。

Both books also blame the “ever-broadening influence of porn”. The internet has made pornography more widely available than ever before. Few view it as realistic, but many consult it as a guide—which makes sense in a country where parents rarely talk candidly⁸ about sex with their children, especially their daughters, and few schools fill the gap. Educators commonly advocate abstinence and only 13 states require that sex education even be medically accurate.

两本书也批评了“色情文学越来越广的影响力”。互联网使得色情书籍比以前更容易获得。在一个父母很少和孩子特别是女孩儿开诚布公地谈论性而且很少有学校会有相关教育的国家，很少有人正视互联网对色情书籍可获得性的事实，但是又有很多人视互联网为指南。教育者们一般只是提倡节欲，而且只有13个国家会要求医学上较为准确的性教育。

The problem is that much of this pornography is not only explicit⁹ but also violent, which can influence expectations. A study of Canadian teenagers found a correlation¹⁰ between consuming pornography and believing it is okay to hold a girl down for forced sex. Pornography also tends to present women's sexuality as something that exists primarily for the benefit of men. Ms Orenstein notes that most of the young women she interviewed had removed all of their pubic hair since they were about 14 in order to cater¹¹ to the fickle¹², porn-bred tastes of young men. They also tended to prioritise their partners' physical pleasure over their own.

问题是很多色情文学直接，暴力，这些会影响他们的未来。一项关于加拿大青少年的调查研究发现消费色情文学与认为可以击倒女生并对其施暴这样的观点存在着一定的联系。而且色情文学倾向于将女性的性欲描述为主要为满足男性而存在的一种事物。沃伦斯坦提到她采访的很多年轻女性14岁左右就去除了阴毛以迎合那些浮躁的有着色情口味的年轻男人。他们还倾向于更看重另一半身材带来的欢愉而非他们自己的。

For anyone raising a daughter, these books do not make for easy reading. Expect plenty of stories about binge drinking, random¹³ hookups, oral sex and misjudged sexting. Intellectually, many young women believe they can achieve whatever they set their minds to, but most still struggle to obey a sexual double-standard that gives them little room between being chided as “sluts” or “prudes”. As one teenage girl tells Ms Orenstein, “Usually the opposite of a negative is a positive, but in this case it's two negatives. So what are you supposed to do?”

对于那些有女儿要抚养的家长来说，这些书籍并不容易阅读。有很多关于酗酒、随机配对、口交和乱性的故事。理性地说，很多年轻女性认为对她们想要的东西志在必得，但是大多数人还是会挣扎着遵循性别上的双重标准——这使得她们被批为“荡妇”和“故作正经的绿茶婊”，因此她们在这两者之间受到了很大的限制。就像一个青少年女孩告诉沃伦斯坦的那样，“消极的反义通常是积极，但是在这个方面是两个消极。所以你还能怎么做呢？” 

1 navigating   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• These can also be very useful when navigating time-based documents, such as video and audio. 它对于和时间有关的文档非常有用，比如视频和音频文档。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Vehicles slowed to a crawl on city roads, navigating slushy snow. 汽车在市区路上行驶缓慢，穿越泥泞的雪地。 来自互联网

2 feminists   

n.男女平等主义者，女权扩张论者( feminist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Only 16 percent of young women in a 1990 survey considered themselves feminists. 在1990年的一项调查中，只有16%的年轻女性认为自己是女权主义者。 来自辞典例句
• The organization had many enemies, most notably among feminists. 这个组织有许多敌人，特别是在男女平等主义者中。 来自辞典例句

3 holly   

n.[植]冬青属灌木

参考例句：

• I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
• People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。

4 liberated   

a.无拘束的，放纵的

参考例句：

• The city was liberated by the advancing army. 军队向前挺进，解放了那座城市。
• The heat brings about a chemical reaction, and oxygen is liberated. 热量引起化学反应，释放出氧气。

5 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 presenter   

n.（电视、广播的）主持人，赠与者

参考例句：

• Most people think being a television presenter is exciting.很多人认为当电视节目主持人是一件刺激的事情。
• The programme dispensed with its most popular presenter.这个节目最受欢迎的主持人被换掉了。

8 candidly   

adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地

参考例句：

• He has stopped taking heroin now,but admits candidly that he will always be a drug addict.他眼下已经不再吸食海洛因了,不过他坦言自己永远都是个瘾君子。
• Candidly,David,I think you're being unreasonable.大卫，说实话我认为你不讲道理。

9 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

10 correlation   

n.相互关系，相关，关连

参考例句：

• The second group of measurements had a high correlation with the first.第二组测量数据与第一组高度相关。
• A high correlation exists in America between education and economic position.教育和经济地位在美国有极密切的关系。

11 cater   

vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务

参考例句：

• I expect he will be able to cater for your particular needs.我预计他能满足你的特殊需要。
• Most schools cater for children of different abilities.大多数学校能够满足具有不同天资的儿童的需要。

12 fickle   

adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的，不坚定的

参考例句：

• Fluctuating prices usually base on a fickle public's demand.物价的波动往往是由于群众需求的不稳定而引起的。
• The weather is so fickle in summer.夏日的天气如此多变。

13 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。