谈女权主义之前，请听听90年前女权先驱的声音

前不久，“Feminism(女权主义)”成为《韦氏词典》2017年年度热词。在这一年里，打破沉默、勇敢指控男性性骚扰的女性们成为了《时代》周刊年度人物。

女权主义运动，在2017年里风起云涌。许多歧视和骚扰女性的名人被失去了公职，站出来高呼性别平等权利的声音更加响亮。

但是，女性权利边界的前移，从来不意味着社会偏见的消失，更不意味着社会舆论会对“女权主义者”产生了好感。

在许多人眼里，“女权主义者”像是喊着离经叛道口号的激进分子。更不用说，还有一些人打着女权主义的旗号要求特权，走向了女权主义平等诉求的对立面。

在人人谈女权、但其概念越来越复杂和含混的年代，在女权主义者一边成为年度热词、一边被赋予更多污名的时代，人们似乎应该回到最初，听听女权主义思想的先驱们当年的声音。

为此，友邻通鉴朗读了90年前，著名作家弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙的一篇演讲的节选。

人们熟知的伍尔芙，是一位杰出的女性作家，是意识流写作的开创者之一。

但她也有一个同样响亮的身份：女性权利与身份思考的先驱之一。

1928年，伍尔芙来到剑桥的两所女子学院进行演讲。当时英国许多岗位已不再有性别限制，但多数女性仍没有走出家庭。伍尔芙于是告诉她们，女性想让自己的才华得到施展，必须要有自己独立的经济能力。

这些今天看来稀松平常的言论，在当时却是革命性的。因为当时男性普遍认为，女性在智力、体力、道德上逊于男人，只应属于厨房和闺房。

(朗读者：来自夏说英文的Wanderer老师)

How can I further encourage you to go about the business of life? Young women, I would say, and please attend, for the peroration is beginning, you are, in my opinion, disgracefully ignorant.

我怎样才能进一步鼓励你们着手去经营自己的人生呢？年轻的女士们，请注意，我要从现在开始下结论，在我看来，你们愚昧得可耻。

You have never made a discovery of any sort of importance. You have never shaken an empire or led an army into battle. The plays of Shakespeare are not by you, and you have never introduced a barbarous race to the blessings of civilization.

你们未曾有过任何重要发现。你们未曾威慑帝国，也未曾领军打仗。你们未曾写出莎士比亚那样的戏剧，也未曾用文明教化野蛮的民族。

What is your excuse? It is all very well for you to say, pointing to the streets and squares and forests of the globe swarming with black and white and coffee-coloured inhabitants, all busily engaged in traffic and enterprise and love-making, we have had other work on our hands.

你们怎样为自己开脱呢？世界上云集着忙于交通、生意和求爱的黑人、白人和棕色人种，你们固然可以指着那里的街道、广场和树林，然后说，我们手头还有其他工作。

Without our doing, those seas would be unsailed and those fertile lands a desert. We have borne and bred and washed and taught, perhaps to the age of six or seven years, the one thousand six hundred and twenty-three million human beings who are, according to statistics, at present in existence, and that, allowing that some had help, takes time.

倘若没有我们的工作，那么海上就无船航行，沃土就变成沙漠。女性生育了16.23亿人，还要养育他们、给他们洗澡、教育他们，可能一直到他们长到六七岁的时候——根据统计，这是现在在世的人数——就算有人帮忙，生养、教育这么多人也是需要时间的。

There is truth in what you say—I will not deny it. But at the same time may I remind you that there have been at least two colleges for women in existence in England since the year 1866; that after the year 1880 a married woman was allowed by law to possess her own property; and that in 1919—which is a whole nine years ago she was given a vote?

你们说的话也对——我不否认这一点。但同时容我提醒你们，自1866年以来，英国至少有两个女子学院；1880年之后，法律允许一个已婚女人拥有自己的财产；在1919年，也就是整整九年前，女人就已享有选举权。我可否再提醒你们，在十年前，大多数职业就已经向女性敞开大门了。

May I also remind you that most of the professions have been open to you for close on ten years now? When you reflect upon these immense privileges and the length of time during which they have been enjoyed, and the fact that there must be at this moment some two thousand women capable of earning over five hundred a year in one way or another, you will agree that the excuse of lack of opportunity, training, encouragement, leisure and money no longer holds good.

你们考虑一下这些巨大特权，以及她们享有这些特权的时间——事实上，就在此刻一定有大约两千名妇女能够以这种或那种方式每年赚五百多英镑，那么，你就会承认，缺少机会、训练、鼓励、空闲和金钱的借口就都站不住脚了。