PBS高端访谈:没有楷模的人生才是人生（在线收听）

JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight, writer Terese Marie Mailhot shares her Humble 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 anomalous 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 indigenous 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 transgression. 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 emulate my journey or look up to how I evolved away from dysfunction and stigma. I reached a semblance of success people might want, but it doesn't mean I should be looked up to. Invented by a sociologist in the '50s, the term role model feels antiquated. 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 purely. 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 aspire 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 feminist enough. A woman wrote that my book was a manifesto for Native American girls. Indigenous people are not a monolith. And my text could limit the way we're seen if it's lauded as representative. We don't need examples for what we aspire to be. We don't need to be inundated 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。