TED演讲:一位性工作者的诉求(1)

 I want to talk about sex for money.  我想讲一讲性交易。

I'm not like most of the people you'll have heard speaking about prostitution before. 我不像很多之前各位听到过的以卖淫为主题的演讲者。

I'm not a police officer or a social worker.  我不是警察，也不是社会工作者，

I'm not an academic, a journalist or a politician.  我不是学者，不是记者，也不从政。

And as you'll probably have picked up from Maryam's blurb¹, I'm not a nun², either. 相信大家已经听了玛丽亚姆的演讲，我也不是修女。

Most of those people would tell you that selling sex is degrading; that no one would ever choose to do it; 大部分人也许会说，卖淫是可耻的，没有人会选择去做。

that it's dangerous; women get abused and killed.  同时卖淫也是危险的，女人受虐甚至被杀害。

In fact, most of those people would say, "There should be a law against it!" 事实上很多人呼吁，“应该有法律来制裁卖淫！”

Maybe that sounds reasonable to you.  也许这听起来更合理。

It sounded reasonable to me until the closing months of 2009,  对于我来说合理的是，当2009年的最后几个月，

when I was working two dead-end, minimum-wage jobs.  当我同时做着两份没有出路只拿最低工资的工作，

Every month my wages would just replenish³ my overdraft⁴.  每个月的工资仅仅弥补了透支时，

I was exhausted⁵ and my life was going nowhere.  当我筋疲力尽不知道路在何方时。

Like many others before me, I decided⁶ sex for money was a better option. 像很多前人一样，我决定从事性工作。

Now don't get me wrong -- I would have loved to have won the lottery⁷ instead. 不要误会，我当然也想通过赢一次乐透来赚钱，

But it wasn't going to happen anytime soon, and my rent needed paying. 但是那只是可遇不可求的事，我的房租等着我去付。

So I signed up for my first shift in a brothel.  所以我同妓院签下了我的第一份合同。

In the years that have passed, I've had a lot of time to think. 过去的这些年，我想了很多。

I've reconsidered the ideas I once had about prostitution.  我重新思考了我对卖淫曾经的看法。

I've given a lot of thought to consent and the nature of work under capitalism⁸. 我对于合约和资本主义下的工作本质进行了长时间的思考。

I've thought about gender⁹ inequality and the sexual and reproductive labor¹⁰ of women. 我也思考了性别歧视，女性的性劳动和生殖劳动。

I've experienced exploitation and violence at work.  工作中我经历过剥削和暴力。

I've thought about what's needed to protect other sex workers from these things. 我也想过我们需要什么来保护其他性工作者，远离剥削和暴力。

1 blurb   

n.简介，短评

参考例句：

• This book fails to give what the blurb describes.这本书不像该书护封上所描绘的那样好。
• In the blurb I couldn't see anything about thinking at all.在这本书的简介中，我根本找不到任何有关思想的东西。

2 nun   

n.修女，尼姑

参考例句：

• I can't believe that the famous singer has become a nun.我无法相信那个著名的歌星已做了修女。
• She shaved her head and became a nun.她削发为尼。

3 replenish   

vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满

参考例句：

• I always replenish my food supply before it is depleted.我总是在我的食物吃完之前加以补充。
• We have to import an extra 4 million tons of wheat to replenish our reserves.我们不得不额外进口四百万吨小麦以补充我们的储备。

4 overdraft   

n.透支，透支额

参考例句：

• Her bank warned that unless she repaid the overdraft she could face legal action.银行警告她如果不偿还透支钱款，她将面临诉讼。
• An overdraft results when a note discounted at a bank is not met when due.银行贴现的支票到期而未能支付就成为透支。

5 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

6 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。

7 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

8 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

9 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。

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。