向前一步:第198期 让我们开始讨论吧(4)

 It sounds like a joke: Did you hear the one about the woman taking a feminist¹ studies class who got angry when someone called her a feminist? 这听上去像个笑话：有人选修了女权主义研究的课程，却为自己被叫作“女权主义者”而生气。

But when I was in college, I embraced the same contradiction. 但是，在大学期间我也接受了这个悖论。

On one hand, I started a group to encourage more women to major in economics and government. 一方面，我创建了一个小组，鼓励更多的女生主修经济学和政府管理课程；

On the other hand, I would have denied being in any way, shape, or form a feminist. 另一方面，我又拒绝成为任何形式的女权主义者。

None of my college friends thought of themselves as feminists² either. 我的大学校友们也没人认为自己是女权主义者。

It saddens me to admit that we did not see the backlash against women around us. 我必须很难过地承认，我们并没有听到周围存在着大量针对女性的反对声。

We accepted the negative caricature of a bra-burning, humorless, man-hating feminist. 提起女权主义者，我们既有的印象就是一个主张烧掉胸罩、面若冰霜、仇视男人的女人。

She was not someone we wanted to emulate³, in part because it seemed like she couldn't get a date. 我们谁也不想效仿她，因为这样做有可能会找不到男朋友。

Horrible, I know — the sad irony⁴ of rejecting feminism to get male attention and approval. 我知道，这听上去很可怕——为了得到男性的注意和认可而拒绝女权主义，真是相当悲哀的讽刺。

In our defense⁵, my friends and I truly, if naively⁶, believed that the world did not need feminists anymore. 为了给自己辩护，我和我的朋友完全（也有点天真地）相信，这个世界不再需要女权主义者了。

We mistakenly thought that there was nothing left to fight for. 我们错误地认为，已经没有什么理由继续为之奋斗和争取了。

I carried this attitude with me when I entered the workforce⁷. 刚参加工作时，我仍然这么想。

I figured if sexism still existed, I would just prove it wrong. I would do my job and do it well. 如果性别歧视还存在的话，我会证明它是错误的，我会尽职尽责把工作完成好。

What I didn't know at the time was that ignoring the issue is a classic survival technique. 我当时并不知道忽视问题的存在就是一种传统的生存技能。

 

1 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

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 emulate   

v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿

参考例句：

• You must work hard to emulate your sister.你必须努力工作，赶上你姐姐。
• You must look at the film and try to emulate his behavior.你们必须观看这部电影，并尽力模仿他的动作。

4 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

5 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

6 naively   

adv. 天真地

参考例句：

• They naively assume things can only get better. 他们天真地以为情况只会变好。
• In short, Knox's proposal was ill conceived and naively made. 总而言之，诺克斯的建议考虑不周，显示幼稚。

7 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。