“女权主义”一词近年来负面色彩越来越严重，新一代人对女权主义的评价呈现两极化趋势，不少人觉得女权主义是侮辱人的话。但是，回顾女权运动的发展史，当前我们拥有的自以为理所应当的权利离不开一辈又一辈女权主义者的努力争取。
今天的青少年必须重新认识女权主义——他们是我们的未来
译者：赵萌萌&徐嘉茵
校对：马里奥
策划：邹世昌
The F-word: feminism must be reclaimed by today’s teens – they’re our future
今天的青少年必须重新认识女权主义——他们是我们的未来
本文选自
The Guardian
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With feminism a dirty word for some, the
suffragette
s’ struggle to secure rights we take for granted is not only inspiring history – it’s a guide for other fights.
一些人认为女权主义是侮辱人的话。
妇女参政论者
为争取我们认为理所应当的权利而奋斗，这绝不仅仅是激动人心的历史，还是其他斗争运动的指导。
When I was a teenager, I knew little about the
suffragettes
. I’d heard of
Emmeline Pankhurst
, and had a vague idea of women in silly hats hitting things with
toffee hammers
and going on
hunger strikes
, but that was about it. So when I started researching early feminism for a novel I was writing, I was astonished. The suffragettes were bloody amazing. They flew in dirigibles and got themselves posted to Downing Street. They wrote suffrage speeches, newspapers, novels and plays. They organised a woman’s peace congress in 1915, with representatives from all warring nations, and met world leaders including
Woodrow Wilson
to try to negotiate peace. The British government was so worried about their activity that it cancelled all
North Sea shipping
until the congress was over. Did you know about that? I didn’t.
青少年时期的我
对争取妇女参选权利的女性
知之甚少。我听说过
艾米琳·潘克斯特 （Emmeline Pankhurst）
，但对这类女的一个模糊的认识仅限于，她们戴着愚蠢的大帽子，拿着
敲太妃糖
的小锤子砸玻璃，还会进行
绝食抗议
。所以当我为了搜集小说素材，查找早期女权运动资料时， 我被震惊了。这些妇女参政论者简直太令人惊叹了。她们曾乘坐过飞行器，把自己装进大包裹邮寄到了唐宁街10号。 她们为演讲撰稿、写作报纸文章，小说和戏剧。她们在1915年组织了妇女和平议会，其成员来自所有第一次世界大战参战国。她们曾与包括美国第28任总统
伍德罗·威尔逊（Woodrow Wilson）
在内的世界领导人会面并进行和平谈判。英国政府对她们的权利运动甚是担忧，于是取消了所有
北海船运
，直到议会解散才恢复。这些事你都清楚吗？反正我是不清楚。
Suffragette
[‚sʌfrə'dʒet] [n.] a woman advocate of women's right to vote (especially a militant advocate in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the 20th century) 妇女政论者
妇女参政论者
：
指19世纪末20世纪初提倡扩大女性在公共选举中选举权利组织的成员，特别指妇女社会政治联盟（WSPU）成员等英国的激进分子。妇女政权论者（Suffragist）是妇女参政运动成员的总称。1918年，英国30岁以上的妇女若符合一定的财产资格都获得投票权；到1928年，妇女选举权扩大到21岁以上的所有妇女。
Toffee hammers：
英国有一种牌子的太妃糖会附赠一把小锤子，用来把糖敲成小块。
It may be the case that today’s teenagers don’t know about it either: two years ago, the government announced that it was
axing
feminism from the politics
A-level
. While it reversed the decision a few months later after a public outcry, it is a worrying sign of how little women’s history is valued today.
今天的青少年可能也不清楚这件事：2015年，英国政府宣布不再将女权主义列为
A-Level课程
下政治科目的必修课。不过几个月后，因公众反对，政府撤回了该项决定，但这仍然是一个令人担忧的迹象：女性历史如今太不受重视了。
ax
[æks] [n.] an edge tool with a heavy bladed head mounted across a handle [v.] chop or split with an ax; Terminate.
A-Level
（General Certificate of Education Advanced Level ）：英国高中课程，是英国全民课程体系，是英国普通中等教育证书考试高级水平课程，也是英国学生的大学入学考试课程。
Telling young people about the suffrage movement is a cause close to my heart. My young adult novel
Things a Bright Girl Can Do
was recently released (I like to think of it as
Little Women
, just with more with hunger strikes, trenches and lesbian snogging), and to get a sense of what young people thought about feminism, I asked around among my friends’ teenage children. It made for depressing reading.
要向年轻人普及妇女权利运动，这一想法深得我心。最近我的新书
《Things a Bright Girl Can Do》
上市了，这是一本青少年读物（我觉得这本书很像
《小妇人》
，不过里面关于绝食抗议、壕沟与女同接吻的描述更多）。为了了解青少年对女权主义的看法，我问遍了朋友家的青少年孩子。结果却不尽如人意。
Feminism is a
polarising
subject for this generation. “You have one group that believes ‘feminism is cancer’, and that supporters are ‘
feminazis
’,” one 17-year-old told me.
这代人对女权主义的评价呈现
两极化
趋势。一个17岁的孩子和我说，“有的人觉得‘女权主义就是癌症’，女权主义支持者被称作‘
女权纳粹
’”。
Another said: “Many people my age wouldn’t [call themselves feminists] because of how the word has been tainted.” Most of them agreed that feminist was a dirty word. Beyond my informal survey, a 2015
YouGov
poll found that 19% of respondents thought the term was an insult – higher than the 15% who thought it was a compliment. Blimey.
另一个孩子说，“很多和我差不多年龄的人不会把自己称作女权主义者，这个词现在已经变味了。”大部分青少年觉得女权主义者是骂人的词。除了我的非正式调查，
YouGov
曾在2015年发起一项调查，发现19%的受访者认为这个词是在侮辱人，而认为这个词是赞美的人仅有15%。我的天哪。
Next year marks the centenary of
Representation of the People Act 1918
, which gave limited voting rights to women. But early feminists were fighting for much more than political power. A key argument was that once women had the vote, they would use it to improve society for women and their dependents. We’ll have old-age pensions! they promised. State
orphanages
! Equal pay for men and women! Women will be able to get university degrees! Divorced women will be able to see their children! Frankly, they sound
deranged
. But in the last 100 years, every single one of those demands has been realised.
明年是
《1918人民代表法令》
颁布一百周年纪念，该法令只允许有限的女性普选权。但早期的女权主义者争取的不仅仅是政治权力。她们的主要运动主张是，女性一旦获得选举权，她们将会用以改善整个女性群体及其亲属的生活。她们许诺，女性同样能领取养老金！她们将成立国营
孤儿院
！保证男女收入平等！女性也能获得大学学位！离异女性也能探望孩子！老实说，这些听起来挺
疯狂的
。但在过去一百年间，这些需求都得以一一实现。
Representation of the People Act 1918
：《1918年人民代表法令》，亦称为“《第四部改革法令》”，是英国在1918年进一步扩大下议院选民基础的法案。
It’s hard to appreciate quite how far women have come in such a short time. The first suffragettes were considered naughty schoolgirls, essentially. They were not even acknowledged as activists. It’s dizzying. I wish modern teenagers were taught this. I wish they understood quite how much they owe those women and their supporters.
很难清楚女性在这么短时间内到底取得了多少进展。起初，人们认为首批妇女参政论者只是些淘气的女学生，甚至不把她们当做活动分子看待。这着实让人不解。我希望能有人告诉现代青少年这一事实。我希望他们能明白自己到底欠了这些女性及其支持者多少。
It’s not all bad: some of the teenagers I talked to were passionately interested in equality and weren’t ashamed to call themselves feminists. “I really don’t understand why grownups think we don’t care,” one 16-year-old told me. “If you actually looked, you’d be blown away by how important feminism and equal rights for all sectors of society are for teenagers.” Others agreed, with several even saying that they felt uncomfortable with the label because the movement didn’t do enough for black women, immigrants, or transgender women.
