VOA标准英语2015--新的女孩服装品牌挑战刻板性别印象

New Girls' Clothing Line Challenges Gender¹ Stereotypes 新的女孩服装品牌挑战刻板性别印象

Many little girls like dolls, flowers, butterflies and ponies².  A lot of them also like cars, robots, dinosaurs⁴, and spaceships. But most girls clothes only feature the flowers, butterflies and ponies. Two mothers decided⁵ to make clothes that reflect all the things that little girls are, and do, and love.  

Six-year-old Bella loves to build houses and cars with Lego blocks.

“I like Barbie and also dinosaurs," said Bella.

So her dress has dinosaurs on it.

“I need a train to put on the train track," said her friend Penny, who also likes Lego.

“I like to make trucks," she said.

The four-year old also likes pink and purple, and the dress she is wearing.

“She really enjoys wearing it.  It’s bright, comfortable, and unique," said Penny mother Cathy Tramontana.

Unique because it has a pattern of the mathematical symbol pi. Tramontana says the design opens the door to a conversation about math.

“We haven’t found this type of dress in a store," she said.

The pi and dinosaur³ dresses are from a new girl’s clothing line called Princess Awesome⁶. Company co-founder Rebecca Melsky says their dresses feature some designs more typically found on boys' clothes.

"I think that a girl wearing a dress with science on it. She is telling the world that is something she is interested in.  She can love girly things and also love science.  It tells that science is just as much for girls as it is for boys," said Melsky.

It all started two years ago when Melsky was shopping for her 2-year-old, who refused to wear anything but a dress. She bought pajamas⁷ mostly from the boys’ section because her daughter also liked robots, trucks and spaceships.

“One day  I walked out past the girls’ section of the store, I thought to myself we should make one of those cute dresses that also have a robot on it or a dinosaur because she will wear that.  She will love that.  Someone should do that. Maybe I should do that," she said.

Her friend Eva St. Clair agreed she should, and their business was born.  Melsky, a school teacher with two children, and St. Clair, a part-time Web developer with four children, got together on Saturdays.

They used fabrics⁸ featuring trucks, planes, pirates and atoms. They also created art dresses based on works by Van Gogh and Monet.

“Usually Rebecca and I would be down in my basement.  Rebecca would cut and I would stitch. And we got to where we could do about four in an hour," said St. Clair.

The first batch⁹ of 70 dresses sold out at St. Clair’s church bazaar¹⁰.  So the founders¹¹ took their business online.  The dresses sold very well there, too.

"They sold out so fast that we could not make them fast enough.  We decided it is time to figure out how to go into a factory," she said.

So they turned to a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign.  They met their goal of $35,000 within days and raised more than $215,000 total in pledges.

“Our biggest challenge is going to be how we expand as rapidly as people seem to want us to," said St. Clair.

The founders hope Princess Awesome will expand into products for girls of all ages and all interests.

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 ponies   

矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑

参考例句：

• They drove the ponies into a corral. 他们把矮种马赶进了畜栏。
• She has a mania for ponies. 她特别喜欢小马。

3 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

4 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

7 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

8 fabrics   

织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地

参考例句：

• cotton fabrics and synthetics 棉织物与合成织物
• The fabrics are merchandised through a network of dealers. 通过经销网点销售纺织品。

9 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

10 bazaar   

n.集市，商店集中区

参考例句：

• Chickens,goats and rabbits were offered for barter at the bazaar.在集市上，鸡、山羊和兔子被摆出来作物物交换之用。
• We bargained for a beautiful rug in the bazaar.我们在集市通过讨价还价买到了一条很漂亮的地毯。

11 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句