英語(yǔ)世界文摘:We Should All Be Feminists

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We Should All Be Feminists

我們都應(yīng)該是女權(quán)主義者

The problem with gender, is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are.

性別的問(wèn)題在于它規(guī)定了我們應(yīng)該是什么樣，而不是承認(rèn)我們本來(lái)是什么樣。

By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie[1]

文/奇瑪曼達(dá)·恩戈茲·阿迪契

In 2003, I wrote a novel called Purple Hibiscus[2], about a man who, among other things, beats his wife, and whose story doesn’t end too well. While I was promoting the novel in Nigeria, a journalist, a nice, well-meaning man, told me he wanted to advise me. (Nigerians, as you might know, are very quick to give unsolicited[3] advice.) He told me that people were saying my novel was feminist, and his advice to me – he was shaking his head sadly as he spoke – was that I should never call myself a feminist, since feminists are women who are unhappy because they cannot find husbands.

2003年我寫了一本小說(shuō)，書(shū)名是《紫木槿》，講的是一個(gè)男人，除了干些別的事外，還打他的老婆。他的結(jié)局也不太好。我在尼日利亞宣傳這本書(shū)的時(shí)候，一位為人不錯(cuò)的記者好心跟我說(shuō)想給我一點(diǎn)建議。（你們可能都知道，尼日利亞人喜歡主動(dòng)給人提建議。）他告訴我有人說(shuō)我的小說(shuō)是女權(quán)主義作品，而他給我的建議是——他說(shuō)話時(shí)惋惜地?fù)u著頭——我絕不該稱自己是女權(quán)主義者，因?yàn)榕畽?quán)主義者都是些不快樂(lè)的女人，因?yàn)樗齻冋也坏秸煞颉?

[1] 奇瑪曼達(dá)·恩戈茲·阿迪契，尼日利亞著名女作家，生于1977年，伊博族。2004年，她的處女作《紫木槿》（Purple Hibiscus，2003）獲得英聯(lián)邦作家獎(jiǎng)（Commonwealth Writers’ Prize）；2007年，她的《半輪黃日》（Half of a Yellow Sun，2006）獲得橘子獎(jiǎng)（Orange Prize，頒獎(jiǎng)對(duì)象為女性作家創(chuàng)作的英語(yǔ)小說(shuō)）。本文節(jié)選自她2014年發(fā)表的TED演講。

[2] 作者的第一部小說(shuō)。通過(guò)15歲少女康比麗的視角，講述了一個(gè)表面和諧、虔誠(chéng)的尼日利亞資產(chǎn)階級(jí)家庭內(nèi)部的壓抑和紛亂，也勾勒了尼日利亞政變背景下社會(huì)的困頓和躁動(dòng)?？当塞惡透绺缭约八麄兊哪赣H終日受制于父親極度苛刻、狂熱的宗教戒律。這一切終止于他們對(duì)伊菲歐瑪姑媽一家的拜訪——受自由、果敢的表兄妹的激勵(lì)，康比麗和扎扎逐漸敢于尋求個(gè)人的獨(dú)立和自由。

[3] unsolicited 未經(jīng)要求的；自發(fā)的。

So I decided to call myself a Happy Feminist. Then an academic, a Nigerian woman, told me that feminism was not our culture, that feminism was un- African. So I decided I would now call myself a Happy African Feminist. Then a dear friend told me that calling myself a feminist meant that I hated men. So I decided I would now be a Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men. At some point I was a Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men And Who Likes To Wear Lip Gloss And High Heels For Herself And Not For Men.

于是我決定稱自己為快樂(lè)的女權(quán)主義者。然后有一個(gè)尼日利亞女學(xué)者跟我說(shuō)，女權(quán)主義不是我們的文化，女權(quán)主義不屬于非洲。于是我決定現(xiàn)在我是快樂(lè)的非洲女權(quán)主義者。后來(lái)有一位好友告訴我，承認(rèn)自己是女權(quán)主義者意味著我恨男人。于是我決定，現(xiàn)在我是不恨男人又快樂(lè)的非洲女權(quán)主義者。有時(shí)候我又是為取悅自己而非男人而涂口紅穿高跟鞋且不恨男人又快樂(lè)的非洲女權(quán)主義者。

Now here’s a story from my childhood. When I was in primary school, my teacher said at the beginning of term that she would give the class a test and whoever got the highest score would be the class monitor. Class monitor was a big deal[4]. If you were a class monitor, you got to write down the names of noisemakers.

下面是我小時(shí)候發(fā)生的一件事。我上小學(xué)的時(shí)候，開(kāi)學(xué)時(shí)老師說(shuō)要給全班同學(xué)考試，誰(shuí)考第一誰(shuí)就當(dāng)班長(zhǎng)。當(dāng)了班長(zhǎng)可了不得，如果你是班長(zhǎng)的話，就能記下?lián)v蛋鬼的名字。

[4] a big deal 重要的事。

But my teacher would also give you a cane to hold in your hand while you walk around and patrol the class for noisemakers. Of course you were not actually allowed to use the cane. But it was an exciting prospect for the nine-year-old me. I very much wanted to be the class monitor. And I got the highest score on the test. Then, to my surprise, my teacher said that the monitor had to be a boy.

老師還會(huì)給你一根藤條，你可以拿著藤條在班里四處巡邏，尋找搗蛋鬼。當(dāng)然你是不允許真的使用這根藤條的。但對(duì)于九歲的我來(lái)說(shuō)，這太令人激動(dòng)了。我非常想當(dāng)班長(zhǎng)。而且我在考試中得了第一名。但沒(méi)想到，老師說(shuō)班長(zhǎng)必須是男生。

A boy had the second highest score on the test, and he would be monitor. Now, what was even more interesting about this is that the boy was a sweet, gentle soul[5] who had no interest in patrolling the class with the cane, while I was full of ambition to do so. But I was female and he was male, and so he became the class monitor. And I’ve never forgotten that incident.

一個(gè)男生在考試中得了第二名，他將成為班長(zhǎng)。有意思的是，這個(gè)男生是個(gè)溫柔又文靜的孩子，對(duì)手持藤條在班里巡邏沒(méi)有一點(diǎn)兒興趣，而我則非常渴望這么做。不過(guò)我是女生，他是男生，所以他成了班長(zhǎng)。我從沒(méi)忘記過(guò)這件事。

[5] soul 某種人；人。

Some men feel threatened by the idea of feminism. Other men might respond by saying, “Okay, this is interesting, but I don’t think like that. I don’t even think about gender.”

有些男人覺(jué)得受到了女權(quán)主義思想的威脅。還有些男人可能會(huì)說(shuō)：“好吧，這想法有意思。但我不會(huì)這么想。我甚至不會(huì)考慮性別問(wèn)題。”

Maybe not.

或許真的不會(huì)。

And that is part of the problem. That many men do not actively think about gender or notice gender. If you are a man and you walk into a restaurant with a woman and the waiter greets only you, does it occur to you to ask the waiter, “Why have you not greeted her?” Men need to speak out in all of these ostensibly[6] small situations.

這就是部分問(wèn)題所在。很多男人不會(huì)主動(dòng)考慮或注意性別問(wèn)題。如果你是一位男士，和一位女士一起走進(jìn)一家餐廳，但服務(wù)員只跟你打招呼，你會(huì)不會(huì)問(wèn)他：“你為什么不和她打招呼？”男人們需要在所有這些貌似無(wú)足輕重的場(chǎng)合大膽表態(tài)。

[6] ostensibly 表面上。

Gender matters everywhere in the world. It is time we should begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of hap pier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: we must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently.

無(wú)論在世界哪個(gè)角落，性別問(wèn)題都很重要。我們是時(shí)候開(kāi)始?jí)粝搿⒃O(shè)計(jì)一個(gè)不一樣的世界了——一個(gè)更公平的世界。在這個(gè)世界里，無(wú)論男女都更幸福，也更忠于自己。我們應(yīng)該這樣開(kāi)始：我們撫養(yǎng)女兒的方式必須改變。我們撫養(yǎng)兒子的方式也必須改變。

We do a great disservice to boys in how we raise them. We stifle the humanity of boys. We define masculinity in a very narrow way. Masculinity becomes a hard, small cage, and we put boys inside this cage.

我們撫養(yǎng)男孩的方式對(duì)他們?cè)斐闪藰O大的傷害。我們扼殺了男孩的天性。我們把男子氣概定義得太過(guò)狹隘。男子氣概變成了一個(gè)堅(jiān)固狹小的牢籠，我們把男孩塞進(jìn)了這樣的牢籠。

We teach boys to be afraid of fear, of weakness, of vulnerability. We teach them to mask their true selves, because they have to be, in Nigerian-speak – a hard man.

我們教男孩害怕恐懼、缺點(diǎn)和脆弱。我們教他們隱藏真實(shí)的自己，因?yàn)樗麄儽仨毘蔀椤媚崛绽麃喨说脑拋?lái)說(shuō)——硬漢。

In secondary school, a boy and a girl go out, both of them teenagers with the same amount of pocket money, would go out and then the boy would be expected always to pay, to prove his masculinity. And yet we wonder why boys are more likely to steal money from their parents.

在中學(xué)里，如果一個(gè)男孩和一個(gè)女孩出去約會(huì)——兩人都是少年，零花錢也一樣多，男孩總是該付錢的那個(gè)，以此來(lái)證明他的男子氣概。我們卻還在納悶為何男孩更可能從父母那兒偷錢。

What if both boys and girls were raised not to link masculinity and money? What if their attitude was not “the boy has to pay,” but rather, “whoever has more should pay.” Of course, because of their historical advantage, it is mostly men who will have more today. But if we start raising children differently, then in fifty years, in a hundred years, boys will no longer have the pressure of proving their masculinity by material means.

如果在養(yǎng)育男孩女孩的過(guò)程中不教他們將男子氣概和金錢掛鉤，會(huì)怎樣？如果他們的態(tài)度不是“男孩必須付錢”而是“誰(shuí)錢多誰(shuí)付錢”，會(huì)怎樣？當(dāng)然，因?yàn)槟腥藲v來(lái)享有的優(yōu)勢(shì)，現(xiàn)在多數(shù)情況下還是男人更有錢。但如果我們開(kāi)始改變養(yǎng)育子女的方式，那么在50年、100年之后，男孩就不會(huì)再有用物質(zhì)財(cái)富證明其男子氣概的壓力了。

But by far the worst thing we do to males – by making them feel they have to be hard – is that we leave them with very fragile egos. The harder a man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is.

不過(guò)到目前為止，我們對(duì)男性做的最糟糕的事情是我們讓他們覺(jué)得自己必須成為硬漢，結(jié)果卻讓他們的自我變得很脆弱。男人越強(qiáng)迫自己做硬漢，他的自我就越脆弱。

And then we do a much greater disservice to girls, because we raise them to cater to the fragile egos of males. We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller.

我們撫養(yǎng)女孩的方式對(duì)她們的傷害更大，因?yàn)槲覀冏屗齻內(nèi)ビ夏行源嗳醯淖晕?。我們教女孩們放低自己，把自己變得更弱小?

We say to girls: You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man. If you are the breadwinner in your relationship with a man, pretend that you are not, especially in public, otherwise you will emasculate[7] him.

我們對(duì)女孩們說(shuō)：你可以有野心，但別太多；你可以立志成功，但別太成功，否則會(huì)威脅到男人的。在與男人的關(guān)系中，如果你是掙錢養(yǎng)家的那個(gè)，假裝你不是，特別是在公共場(chǎng)合，否則會(huì)損害他的男子氣概的。

[7] emasculate 使（男人）柔弱；使無(wú)男子氣概。

But what if we question the premise itself? Why should a woman’s success be a threat to a man? What if we decide to simply dispose of that word, and I don’t think there’s an English word I dislike more than “emasculation.”

但如果我們質(zhì)疑男子氣概這個(gè)前提本身呢？為什么女人的成功會(huì)威脅到男人呢？如果我們決定直接舍棄這個(gè)詞呢？沒(méi)有一個(gè)英語(yǔ)單詞比“有損男子氣概”更讓我討厭了。

Boys and girls are undeniably different biologically, but socialization exaggerates the differences and then it becomes a self-fulfilling process. What if in raising children we focus on ability instead of gender? What if in raising children we focus on interest instead of gender?

男孩女孩間存在著生理差異，這是無(wú)可爭(zhēng)辯的，但其社會(huì)化過(guò)程夸大了這種差異，使這種差異變成了一個(gè)自我應(yīng)驗(yàn)的過(guò)程。要是在教育孩子時(shí)我們關(guān)注能力而非性別，會(huì)怎樣？要是在教育孩子時(shí)，我們關(guān)注興趣而非性別，又會(huì)怎樣？

Some people will say a woman is subordinate to men because it’s our culture. But culture is constantly changing. I have beautiful twin nieces who are 15. If they had been born a hundred years ago, they would have been taken away and killed. Because a hundred years ago, Igbo[8] culture considered the birth of twins to be an evil omen. Today that practice is unimaginable to all Igbo people.

有人會(huì)說(shuō)女性的地位低于男性是因?yàn)檫@是我們的文化。但文化是不斷變化的。我有一對(duì)漂亮的雙胞胎侄女，今年15歲。如果她們出生在100年前，可能會(huì)被帶走、殺死。因?yàn)樵?00年前，伊博文化認(rèn)為雙胞胎的誕生是一種噩兆。如今，這種做法對(duì)任何伊博人來(lái)說(shuō)都是無(wú)法想象的。

[8] 伊博族，尼日利亞的主要部族之一，也是西非主要黑人種族之一，主要分布于尼日利亞?wèn)|南尼日爾河河口地區(qū)。

Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.

不是文化造就人，而是人造就文化。如果我們的文化真的不認(rèn)同女性是完整意義上的人，那么我們可以也必須使之成為我們的文化。

My great-grandmother, from stories I’ve heard, was a feminist. She ran away from the house of the man she did not want to marry and married the man of her choice. She refused, protested, spoke up whenever she felt she was being deprived of land and access because she was female. She did not know that word feminist. But it doesn’t mean she wasn’t one. My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, “Yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better.”

從我聽(tīng)到的故事來(lái)看，我的曾祖母是個(gè)女權(quán)主義者。她不想嫁給一個(gè)男人，就從他家逃了出來(lái)，跟自己選擇的男人結(jié)了婚。只要她覺(jué)得自己因?yàn)槭桥硕粍儕Z了土地或權(quán)利，她就拒絕、抗議，大膽為自己辯護(hù)。她不知道“女權(quán)主義者”一詞，但這并不意味著她不是一個(gè)女權(quán)主義者。我自己給女權(quán)主義者的定義是：一個(gè)男人或女人，認(rèn)為“的確，當(dāng)今性別的現(xiàn)狀是有問(wèn)題的。我們必須解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題，我們必須做得更好”。

All of us, women and men, must do better.

我們所有人，無(wú)論男人還是女人，都必須做得更好。

（譯者為“《英語(yǔ)世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎(jiǎng)選手，單位：常州信息職業(yè)技術(shù)學(xué)院）