女人何必爲難女人

If you were to believe the headlines in most newspapers, you would assume women do not like each other very much. Consider: “My female boss wouldn’t promote me because I’m pretty”; “A scheming harpy stole my man”; “I have no women friends because I like wearing short skirts”; and “Women hate me because I’m so beautiful”. The list goes on.
如果你相信大部分報紙上的新聞標題，就會認定女人都不太喜歡女人。想想以下這些說法吧：“我的女老闆不提拔我，因爲我漂亮”；“一個詭計多端的惡女人偷走了我的男人”；“我沒有女性朋友，因爲我喜歡穿短裙”；“女人恨我，因爲我太美了”。如此等等。

I am a feminist, so I should deny that any of this goes on, right? I should believe women are amazing and we all support each other without question. We are paragons of virtue, models of kindness. The day I became a feminist was the day I realised that all those snide insinuations that we are our own worst enemies were just patriarchal nonsense designed to keep us down.
我是一個女權主義者，因此我應當否認這些現象的存在，不是嗎？我應該相信，女性都很了不起，總是無條件地支持彼此；我們是道德典範、善心大使。自從我成爲女權主義者的那天起，我就意識到，所有那些暗示“女人最大的敵人是她們自己”的說法，都是男權主義者們捏造出來的謊言，目的就是阻擋女性前進的腳步。

But there is some truth in both positions. Women can be cruel to each other Women can deliberately sabotage each other’s success. But the way this is interpreted – as the consequence of some innate female “cattiness” – ignores the position women are placed in from the moment they are born.
儘管我贊同女權主義的觀點，但也承認現實的存在。現實中，女人對女人可能的確會很殘忍，有些女人還會蓄意破壞其他女人的成功。但如果把這些現象解讀爲女性天生就“陰險”，那就忽視了一點——就是女人們在出生那一刻就被賦予的社會位置。

Women grow up being taught about what men have done through history. Male scientists, male mathematicians, male leaders – even when the peasants get involved, it is all about men. They see male politicians on the television talking to male journalists. They see men running around kicking, hitting, dunking balls. They read books and watch films where men take action and where women talk about men taking action.
女性在成長過程中得到的教育，都是有關男性是如何創造歷史的。男性科學家、男性數學家、男性領導者...... 甚至連提到農民時，也主要是男性。她們在電視上看到的是男性政治家接受男性記者的採訪。她們在運動場上看到男人在跑動、踢球、擊球、扣籃。她們讀的書、看的電影描述的都是男人在行動，女人出現時，也只是在談論男人的行動。

When men still hold the reins, should we be surprised that women see other women as a threat, as potential usurpers of the male attention they need to succeed? It is clear where power lies – so is it any surprise when women know on which side their bread is buttered? Should we be surprised when this manifests itself in agreeing with the umpteenth man that his girlfriend does sound hysterical, whilst making it clear that you yourself are the picture of rationality? Should we be surprised when it manifests itself in resentment and jealousy of the few women who do manage to break through? In the playground, no one bullies the strong, they bully the weak. And the behaviour that sees women attacking each other illustrates that women still tend to lack power.
當男性依然處於控制地位時，女人將其他女人看作威脅、看作奪取男性注意力以便獲得成功的潛在敵人，有什麼好讓人驚訝的？當權力在兩性間的傾斜如此明顯時，女人去依附能給她帶來最大利益的人，有什麼好讓人驚訝的？當我們告訴第N個男人，他的女朋友的確有些歇斯底里，然後趕緊宣稱我們自己通情達理，有什麼好讓人驚訝的？女人怨恨和嫉妒少數幾個真正取得突破的女性，又有什麼好讓人驚訝的？在運動場上，沒人欺負強者。女人彼此攻擊，恰恰表明女性依然是弱者。

This resentment does not just arise over success – or at least, not traditional definitions of success. I recently ran a fairly high-profile feminist campaign to make sure at least one woman (other than the Queen or Britannia) was depicted on English banknotes. Happily, we won. But in the aftermath of that, I was subjected to a barrage of violent rape and death threats. The vast majority of women were supportive. They had been there, some of them said. And they had been ignored.
女人對女人的怨恨，並不僅僅針對那些獲得成功的同類——起碼並非僅僅是傳統意義上的那種成功。比如，最近我組織了一次非常高調的女權運動，要求英國紙幣上至少印有一名女性形象（除了女王之外）。令人欣慰的是，我們贏了。但之後我收到了一系列暴力和死亡威脅。大部分女性是支持我的。她們中的一些人說，也受到過類似攻擊，卻沒人重視。It was different for me. I was not ignored. Because of my campaigning, the media took an interest in the backlash that followed – and media pressure forced the police to investigate crimes that they had ignored when perpetrated against less high-profile women. This disparity led some of those women to take their resentment out on me. Rather than rail against a system that unfairly privileges certain women over others, they railed against a woman who had unfairly benefited from it.
但我的情況不同，我沒有被忽視。因爲我發起的運動，媒體對事後我受到的攻擊產生了興趣。迫於媒體壓力，警方開始介入調查，而如果受到攻擊的女性不那麼引人注目，警方是不會理會那些罪行的。我的境遇好於其他女性，使得她們中的一些人遷怒於我。她們沒把矛頭指向那個不公平的、賦予其中一些女性“特權”的那個體系，卻把矛盾指向了不公平地受益於這個體系的我。

Feminism has long ignored this issue – and with good reason. With women pilloried, misrepresented, and under-represented in public life, why would we give that culture more ammunition? Why would we give that culture more excuses for claiming that women are their own worst enemies – and that is why they have failed to achieve equality?
女權主義者一直以來都選擇忽視這類現象，這不無理由。在公衆生活中，女性仍然受到束縛、被曲解、沒有足夠的話語權。所以女人爲何還要承認最大的敵人就是自己——所以我們無法取得真正的平等呢？這種說法看上去只會給男權文化找到更多借口，賦予它更大力量。

This reaction is understandable, but ultimately futile. More than this, it is damaging. If feminism keeps ignoring this issue, then it accepts the sexist narrative about why it arises. What we need to do instead is to acknowledge the anger and understand it. Until we stop brushing this issue under our copies of The Female Eunuch, it will never be resolved. Feminism will continue to fail women who have been so traumatised by growing up in a society that devalues them and threatens them with violence, that they fight back in the only way that feels safe: against each other.
這種反應是可以理解的，但最終是無益的，甚至是破壞性的。如果女權主義始終忽視這個問題，就相當於接受性別主義者對問題根源的解釋。我們所需要做的就是，承認憤怒的存在並理解它。如果我們總是用一本《女太監》(The Female Eunuch，70年代出版的一本女權主義經典書籍——譯者注)來解釋所有的問題，那麼它們就永遠得不到解決，女權主義將繼續讓女性失望。在一個貶低女性價值、女性不時受到暴力威脅的社會中成長，女性受害已經如此之深，以至於只有一種回擊方式能讓她們感到安全，那就是爲難其他女人。