PBS高端访谈:没有楷模的人生才是人生

JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight, writer Terese Marie Mailhot shares her Humble¹ Opinion of why it's time to retire the notion of role models.

TERESE MARIE MAILHOT, Writer: My book reached critical mass when the actress Emma Watson posted a selfie with it to Instagram. I panicked. I wasn't ready for that kind of attention. The book became a New York Times bestseller shortly after. This is anomalous² for a native woman writer. The conversations surrounding me were changing. A major newspaper called me the voice of a generation. An interviewer asked me if I felt like a role model for indigenous³ women. I didn't want to be the voice of anyone but myself. I didn't want to be looked up to. My book is about survival and transgression⁴. I narrowly survived my circumstances. I come from a broken home. I dropped out of school when I was a kid. I was a single mother on welfare. And I don't want people to emulate⁵ my journey or look up to how I evolved away from dysfunction and stigma⁶. I reached a semblance⁷ of success people might want, but it doesn't mean I should be looked up to. Invented by a sociologist⁸ in the '50s, the term role model feels antiquated⁹. It's a slogan made for cereal boxes and self-help gurus who are selling success or reaching goals without compromise, things we know by now don't exist, not purely¹⁰. Up close, the guru cheats on his wife, or worse. The athlete will disappoint. So will the leaders, the actors and the singers. When they fail us, we're either judge and jury or all too forgiving. I have seen women who aspire¹¹ to be good role models criticized for what they wear, who they marry and how much money they can make because they because too capitalistic and not feminist¹² enough. A woman wrote that my book was a manifesto¹³ for Native American girls. Indigenous people are not a monolith. And my text could limit the way we're seen if it's lauded¹⁴ as representative. We don't need examples for what we aspire to be. We don't need to be inundated¹⁵ with possibilities. We should have original objectives that reach beyond comparisons. I question the idea of imitation and its necessity, when I'm the first where I'm from to do what I have done. And not having models to emulate gave me room to be.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Writer Terese Marie Mailhot.

朱蒂·伍德拉夫：今晚最后，作家特里斯·玛丽·麦尔霍特在《管见所及》栏目分享了她关于摒弃榜样概念正当时的观点。

特里斯·玛丽·麦尔霍特：当女演员艾玛·沃特森将自拍照发布到照片墙时，我的书读者剧增。我受宠若惊。我还没准备好去接受那种关注。不久之后，这本书成为了纽约时报的畅销书。这对于一个本土女作家而言，不大正常。我身边的谈话正在发生变化。一家大报纸称我为一代人的声音。一位采访者问我，觉不觉得自己是土著女性的榜样。而除了我自己，我不想代表任何人发声。我不想被人仰视。我的书讨论的是生存与越轨。我勉强从我周围的环境中活了下来。我来自一个破碎的家庭。我还是个孩子的时候，就辍学了。我是个单身母亲，接受福利救济。我不想让人们经历我的苦楚，或者看我如何从功能性障碍和耻辱中挺过来。我达到了人们心目中可能想要的成功，但这并不意味着我应该受到仰视。50年代一位社会学家发明了“榜样”这个词，它听起来让人觉得很古旧。这是个给谷物盒子打的标语，给自助大师做的口号，他们兜售成功，毫不妥协地达成目标，我们现在知道，那些东西不存在，并不纯粹。而实际上，大师背叛妻子，或者更糟。那名运动员会失望。领导们，演员们以及歌手们也都会失望。当他们让我们失败时，我们要么是法官，要么是陪审团，要么就是太宽容了。我见过那些渴望成为优秀榜样的女性们，她们因自己的穿着打扮，自己的婚姻，自己的经济收入，自己太过资本主义，而没有体现出足够的女权主义，而饱受诟病。一位女士写道，我的书是美国土著女孩的宣言。土著人民不是一块巨石。而如果我的文字被赞许为代表，那么会限制人们审视我们的方式。我们不需要我们渴望成为的例子。我们不需要那么多种可能性蜂拥而至。我们应该有超越比较的原始目标。当我成为土著女人中首位获得如此殊荣的人，我质疑要去效仿的想法及其必要性。不去效仿，给了我成长的空间。

朱蒂·伍德拉夫：作家特里斯·玛丽·麦尔霍特。

1 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

2 anomalous   

adj.反常的；不规则的

参考例句：

• For years this anomalous behaviour has baffled scientists.几年来这种反常行为让科学家们很困惑。
• The mechanism of this anomalous vascular response is unknown.此种不规则的血管反应的机制尚不清楚。

3 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

4 transgression   

n.违背；犯规；罪过

参考例句：

• The price can make an action look more like a transaction than a transgression.罚款让一个行为看起来更像是一笔交易而不是一次违法行为。
• The areas of transgression are indicated by wide spacing of the thickness contours.那幢摩天大楼高耸入云。

5 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。

6 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

7 semblance   

n.外貌，外表

参考例句：

• Her semblance of anger frightened the children.她生气的样子使孩子们感到害怕。
• Those clouds have the semblance of a large head.那些云的形状像一个巨大的人头。

8 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

9 antiquated   

adj.陈旧的，过时的

参考例句：

• Many factories are so antiquated they are not worth saving.很多工厂过于陈旧落后，已不值得挽救。
• A train of antiquated coaches was waiting for us at the siding.一列陈旧的火车在侧线上等着我们。

10 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

11 aspire   

vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于

参考例句：

• Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
• I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。

12 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。

13 manifesto   

n.宣言，声明

参考例句：

• I was involved in the preparation of Labour's manifesto.我参与了工党宣言的起草工作。
• His manifesto promised measures to protect them.他在宣言里保证要为他们采取保护措施。

14 lauded   

v.称赞，赞美( laud的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They lauded the former president as a hero. 他们颂扬前总统为英雄。 来自辞典例句
• The nervy feats of the mountaineers were lauded. 登山者有勇气的壮举受到赞美。 来自辞典例句

15 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》