向前一步:第26期 职业女性的内在障碍(15)

 My favorite song, "William's Doll," is about a five-year-old boy who begs his reluctant father to buy him a traditional girl's toy. 我最喜欢其中的一首歌《威廉想要个娃娃》，讲的是一个5岁的男孩恳求父亲给他买一个女孩玩的布娃娃。

Almost forty years later, the toy industry remains¹ riddled² with stereotypes³. 差不多40年以后，玩具行业还是老样子。

Right before Christmas 2011, a video featuring a four-year-old girl named Riley went viral. 2011年圣诞节前夕，一段关于一个名叫赖利的4岁女孩的视频被疯狂传播。

Riley paces in a toy store, upset because companies are trying to  赖利在一家玩具商店里走来走去，闷闷不乐，因为玩具公司们想要

"trick the girls into buying the pink stuff instead of stuff that boys want to buy, right?" Right. “诱导女孩们买粉色的玩具而不是那些男孩们想买的玩具”，不是吗？没错。

As Riley reasons, "Some girls like superheroes, some girls like princesses. 就像赖利所推理的，“有些女孩喜欢超级英雄，有些女孩喜欢公主；

Some boys like superheroes, some boys like princesses. 有些男孩喜欢超级英雄，有些男孩喜欢公主。

So why do all the girls have to buy pink stuff and all the boys have to buy different color stuff?" 那么，为什么所有的女孩都必须买粉色的东西，而所有的男孩都得买其他颜色的东西？”

It takes a near act of rebellion for even a four-year-old to break away from society's expectations. 即使一个四岁大的孩子，想要摆脱社会的期望也得采取一种近乎反叛的行为。

William still has no doll, while Riley is drowning in a sea of pink. 威廉仍然没有得到布娃娃，赖利也总是陷入各式粉色物件的包围中。

I now play Free to Be. You and Me for my children and hope that if they ever play it for their children, its message will seem quaint⁴. 就像我母亲一样，我现在会给自己的孩子播放《做自由的你我》这张唱片听，希望到了他们给自己的孩子放这张唱片的时代，人们会拥有真正的选择权。

The gender⁵ stereotypes introduced in childhood are reinforced throughout our lives and become self-fulfilling prophesies⁶. 童年时期就被灌输的固有模式会随着我们的成长进一步被强化，并成为自我实现的预言。

Most leadership positions are held by men, so women don't expect to achieve them, and that becomes one of the reasons they don't. 大多数领导者的角色都由男性担当，所以女性也不指望获得这样的角色，这也是她们没有成为领导者的原因之一。

The same is true with pay. 薪酬问题也是一样。

Men generally earn more than women, so people expect women to earn less. And they do. 男性挣得比女性多，所以人们对女性薪酬的期望值也更低。事实的确如此。

 

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 riddled   

adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式)

参考例句：

• The beams are riddled with woodworm. 这些木梁被蛀虫蛀得都是洞。
• The bodies of the hostages were found riddled with bullets. 在人质的尸体上发现了很多弹孔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 quaint   

adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的

参考例句：

• There were many small lanes in the quaint village.在这古香古色的村庄里，有很多小巷。
• They still keep some quaint old customs.他们仍然保留着一些稀奇古怪的旧风俗。

5 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。

6 prophesies   

v.预告，预言( prophesy的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The Frate neither rails nor prophesies against any man. 这里修士对任何人既不斥骂，也不预言。 来自辞典例句
• Whoever speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but whoever prophesies builds up the church. 那说语言的，是建立自己；那讲先知话的，却是建立教会。 来自互联网