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印度舉辦崇拜少女日,轉正常社會恐需要一場性革命

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印度舉辦崇拜少女日,轉正常社會恐需要一場性革命

Twice a year, in spring and fall, India's Hindus celebrate Navrati, a nine-day festival during which they pray each day to a different female deity. Navrati culminates in 'kanya puja,' or a day of maiden worshiping: Every household invites over the young girls of the neighborhood and, led by the father or patriarch, bows before them, washes their feet, prays to them, offers them a specially prepared feast of vegetarian delicacies and showers them with gifts and money.

每年春秋兩季,印度教徒都會慶祝Navrati節。在爲期9天的慶典中印度人每天敬拜一位不同的女神。Navrati節會在“崇拜少女日”(kanya puja)當天達到高潮。當天,每家每戶都會邀請附近的年輕女孩來到家中,整個家族會在父親或者家族長老的帶領下,向她們鞠躬,爲她們洗腳,向她們禱告,奉上專門爲其烹飪的素食大餐,並送上禮物和錢財。

Growing up, I would make several weeks' worth of allowance on that one day. But this ancient practice wasn't meant to pamper the girls. It served to remind men of the qualities─mental courage, spiritual wisdom, purity of mind and strength of character─embodied in the feminine spirit, without which, according to Hindu scriptures, the cosmos would collapse into decadence and chaos.

在我成長的經歷中,那天得到的零用錢夠花上好幾個星期。但這個古老的傳統並非爲了寵愛女孩,而是爲了提醒男人們一些女性精神氣質中所體現的品質:勇氣、心靈的智慧,靈魂的純潔和性格的力量;如果失去這些品質,據印度教聖經所言,整個宇宙都會陷入衰退和渾沌。

Such veneration of women may surprise foreign observers of India, considering the recent epidemic of rapes there and publicity about the everyday harassment that Indian women face─lewd gestures, catcalls, groping and worse. Some have blamed modernity, suggesting that India needs to return to its past. But when it comes to 'eve teasing' (as this practice is euphemistically called), I would argue the opposite: It is precisely the stubborn hold of India's prudish culture that has made many Indian men so callow.

對女性的如此崇敬可能會讓很多關注印度的外國人感到震驚,因爲最近印度強姦案橫行,對女性的性騷擾也頗爲公開:諸如猥褻的手勢,挑逗的口哨,“鹹豬手”或者其他更惡劣的行爲。一些人將這歸咎於現代化進程,認爲印度應該回歸傳統。但是當涉及“夏娃的誘惑”(這是性騷擾的委婉說法)時,我會堅持相反的觀點:正是由於固守“假正經”的印度文化, 許多印度男人才在性方面沒有經驗。

Arun Arushi Narodin, who writes for the online magazine Bodhi Commons, reports that 90% of urban women in India experience harassment. But that almost certainly understates the problem. I've never met an Indian woman─rich or poor, upper or lower caste, pretty or homely, young or middle-age─who hasn't been harassed. Indeed, street-level harassment is like traffic for drivers, an unavoidable nuisance women confront whenever they leave the house. It fundamentally alters how they walk, talk, travel and dress in public. It impels them to assume a body language least likely to draw attention─to cover themselves, as it were, in an invisible burqa.

爲網絡雜誌《菩提樹下的議院》(Bodhi Commons)撰稿的阿倫•阿修羅•納羅丁(Arun Arushi Narodin)報道稱,印度90%的城鎮女性都有被性騷擾的經歷。而這一數據顯然低估了問題的嚴峻程度。我所認識的印度女性,無論貧富、等級、相貌或年齡,沒有一個沒受到過性騷擾。實際上,街頭性騷擾就像司機遇到堵車一樣平常,只要踏出家門就會不可避免的遇到。這種情況從根本上改變了印度女性走路、說話、穿着的方式;也迫使她們採用最不引人注意的肢體語言,並穿上布卡(Burqa)覆蓋全身來尋求保護。

I first felt myself donning this burqa sometime in my midteens as I walked with my mother to the market near our home in New Delhi and a group of young men started hooting, whistling and singing Bollywood songs. My mother hissed at me to walk quickly and avoid eye contact. Had we been accompanied by my father, the loud harassment would have been replaced with more surreptitious gestures. This mostly low-level nuisance turns into molestation in crowded buses or public spaces, as men grope or press against trapped women. My mother instructed me to have a sharp elbow or a safety pin always at the ready, advice that is still handed down to Indian girls today.

我記憶中第一次穿布卡大約是在少年時期,當時我和母親一同前往位於新德里家附近的一個市場,一羣男人開始對我們怪叫,吹口哨,還唱起寶萊塢(Bollywood)的歌曲。母親示意我不說話快走,也不要有任何眼神接觸。有的時候,如果父親和我們一起,這些大聲的騷擾則會轉變爲鬼鬼祟祟的手勢。如果在擁擠的公車上或公共場合,這些低級的騷擾就會變成明目張膽的“折磨”,男人們通常會趁着擁擠對女性上下其手。母親教導我要利用自己的胳膊肘或者隨時待命的安全針保護自己。時至今日,這些方法仍在女孩中口口相傳。

What is the cause of this phenomenon? Some argue that the uneven economic growth triggered by India's two-decade-old liberalization has left many men feeling emasculated. Young girls flaunting their newfound wealth in sparkling malls and fast-food restaurants, it is said, are producing a backlash of jealousy and envy from less-well-off men. 'Men's loss of power and control over women has made professional women particularly vulnerable, especially in male-dominated work environments and in public spaces,' writes Rasna Wahra for the Daily Nation. But street harassment predates liberalization by generations. My mother endured it 50 years ago.

這種現象究竟緣何而起?一些人認爲是印度自由化二十年來導致不平衡的經濟發展,使許多男性失去了曾經的優越感。年輕女孩開始在奢華的商場和快餐店裏炫耀她們的財富,而這隨即催生了一些不那麼富裕的男性的敵對性嫉妒心理。來自《國家日報》(Daily Nation)的Rasna Wahra寫道:“男人權力的喪失以及無法再對女人實施操控,這使得職場女性尤爲容易受到傷害,這點在以男性爲主導的工作環境或公共場合中表現得尤爲明顯。”可是街頭性騷擾比自由化要早了幾十個年頭,我母親從50多年前就開始忍受了。

Others suggest that harassment is the product of rapid urbanization, which has flooded India's cities with village hicks, who lose their heads on seeing (relatively) liberated women roaming around freely. That would make sense if urban men from 'respectable' families weren't also among the offenders. And then there is the feminist explanation: patriarchy, which sees street-level harassment as an assertion of male domination. But India is arguably less patriarchal now than it has ever been, and the problem remains.

還有一些人認爲性騷擾是席捲印度村落的城鎮化進程的產物,這些村落裏的男性可沒見過什麼受過教育的女性。不過這種說法,也只有當那些來自“有教養”家庭的城鎮男子並不在騷擾者行列之內時,才說得通。女權主義認爲:父權制社會中,街頭性騷擾是維護男性主導地位的一個表現。可是即便當代印度正處於父權制最弱的時期,性騷擾問題依然存在。

Unlike rape and sex-selective abortion, which represent a genuine devaluing of women, sexual harassment in India is, I believe, an expression not of the power of Indian men but of their helplessness. It's a pathetic attempt to have a sexual encounter, no matter how meaningless and evanescent. Its real cause is free-floating male libido with no socially acceptable outlet.

在我看來,性騷擾同強姦和選擇性別墮胎不同,後兩項純粹是對女性的貶低;而性騷擾則是印度男人對無助的表達,並非是他們對權利的訴求。通過這種毫無意義又十分短暫的性接觸來解決需求的途徑十分悲哀。其真正原因是這些膨脹的男性慾望沒有可被社會所接受的宣泄口。

India's sexual mores and institutions are rooted in a pastoral past, when people died before 50, so marriages between minors were the norm. Families in villages would betroth their children, at birth sometimes, and have a formal ceremony after both attained puberty, when the girl went to live with her husband's family. This arrangement, now banned, had many horrendous downsides, but it produced an organic harmony between the sexual needs of individuals and the social expectations of monogamy and chastity.

印度有關兩性的道德標準和社會制度植根於古舊的農業時代,那時候人們壽命超不過50歲,婚姻低齡化也就成爲了習俗。農村人有時甚至會在孩子出生時就訂好了娃娃親,當他們到了青春期,女孩搬去同她的丈夫家人一同居住時,再舉行一場正式的儀式。這樣的安排有很多可怕的負面影響,現在已被禁止。但在那個時候,它創造了一種平衡的性需求結構,也同樣符合了社會對於一夫一妻制以及持守貞操的期待。

Today the average marriage age in India has risen to 22 for women and 26 for men. Yet virginity and chastity─especially for women, but also men─remain prized virtues. The vast majority of marriages, even in large cosmopolitan cities, are arranged. But even love matches can't be openly consummated before marriage, thanks to the taboo against premarital sex. Girls are expected to go from their father's house to their husband's, virginity intact.

如今印度女性平均結婚年齡已經升至22歲,男性爲26歲。但無論男女,尤其是對於女性來說,保持處子之身和貞操依然被視作一種至高的美德。印度大部分的婚姻,甚至在超級大城市裏,依然屬於包辦性質。由於婚前性行爲是禁忌,即便自由戀愛的情侶也不能在結婚前發生性行爲。從父家到夫家居住之前,女孩都需要保持處女之身。

The upshot is legions of grown, unmarried men who have never had sex. It is their repressed libido that expresses itself in weird social pathologies such as harassment. Trying to stamp out harassment with the tougher laws that India has recently embraced─declaring stalking a crime, setting sentences of five years for groping, one year for lewd gestures─will help at the margins at best. A problem rooted in natural urges is unlikely to yield to legal quick fixes.

這就導致大批的成年未婚男子從未有過性行爲。正因如此,他們壓抑的性慾只能通過一些諸如性騷擾等病態的社會行爲來釋放。印度當局目前也在實施一些法律,試圖杜絕性騷擾──尾隨爲犯罪行爲,動手動腳會被判五年有期徒刑,猥褻動作也會被判刑一年──但這也是治標不治本。一個根植於自然原始衝動的問題並不太可能通過法律捷徑得以解決。

What would work? Nothing short of transforming India's puritanical culture and giving men and women more freedom to forge sexually mature relationships outside of marriage. The reform process is already under way among the urbanized upper classes. Bollywood movies, generally a good barometer of social trends, are increasingly depicting cohabiting couples in a favorable light. 'Living together before marriage is not a crime,' Deepika Padukone, a famous actress, recently declared.

那有什麼辦法可以奏效呢?徹底改變印度過於拘謹的宗教文化,賦予男人和女人更多自由,不用等到婚後才能建立成熟的性關係。這個轉變已經在城鎮富裕階層發生了。寶萊塢電影一向是社會風向的晴雨表,如今也越來越多地採用正面方式去刻畫同居男女的關係。著名印度女演員迪皮卡•帕度柯妮(Deepika Padukone) 最近就聲稱“婚前同居並不是犯罪”。

But the process will take generations. Given India's starting point in ancient traditions, one can hope that it will result in a balance healthier than what has unfolded in the over-sexualized West. But unfold it must, because the status quo demeans India's daughters─and warps its sons.

但這個過程會延續幾代人。介於印度的起點是古老的保守傳統,我們期望達到的是開放與保守的平衡,而不是如西方一般過度開放的性文化。但解禁是勢在必行的,因爲現狀不僅貶低了印度女性,也扭曲了印度男性。