英文自修153：从“男孩礼物”说起（Thought for the Day 20141127）

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转载、翻译、中文标题：武太白

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Thought for the Day 20141127 Rev Dr Michael Banner

Maggie Cole from Dorset, 7 years old, was somewhat disgruntled, it seems, to see a Superhero alarm clock displayed in a Tesco’s store under the words ‘Fun Gifts for Boys’. Her mother said that Maggie has always been keen on superheroes, dragons and the like and thought that the alarm clock would make a fun gift for both girls and boys – and Tesco agreed, admitted their mistake, and removed the sign.

多塞特郡的麦姬·科尔才七岁，似乎她对乐购超市摆放的一个超人闹钟标签贴了“男孩的有趣礼物”感觉不满意。她妈妈说麦姬一直对超人、龙之类的东西感兴趣，并且觉得那个闹钟不管是送给男孩还是女孩都很合适——乐购表示赞同，承认了错误，并移除了标签。

But if toys are just toys and not toys for boys – or girls for that matter - what about books? I ask that question because a survey published by the reading website Goodreads shows a stark gender divide in our reading habits. Of the 50 books published this year and most popular with women, only five were by men – and one of those men was a certain Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling. The figures for male readers are much the same, but the other way round – men have been reading books mostly by men.

但是如果玩具就是玩具，不是男孩的玩具——或者说不是女孩的玩具，说到这一点——那么书呢？我问这个问题，是因为阅读网站Goodreads发布的调查表明在我们的阅读习惯方面有着巨大的性别差异。在今年出版的50本女性中间最流行的书中，只有5本是男性作品——其中一个还是名叫罗伯特·加尔布雷斯的，此人其实就是J. K. 罗琳。男性读者方面数据也差不多，只是倒过来了——男性所读的书，作者基本上也都是男性。

I am glad that Maggie Cole won her point – girls’ expectations of what they can do or be in life shouldn’t be constrained by signs directing them away from Superhero alarm clocks, or from tractors or chemistry sets. But should we worry about there seeming to be books for men and books for women, whatever it may be which causes these choices? ‘Yes’, I would say – and mostly for the sake of the men.

很高兴麦姬·科尔的观点胜出——女孩对他们在生活中能够做的、能够成为的样子不应该被那些指示她们离开超人闹钟、拖拉机或分子模型之类的标签所左右。但我们该不该关注似乎有“男性的书”、“女性的书”这样的问题，不论引起这些选择的是些什么？我会说“应该”——而且主要是为了男性。

There is a wonderful detail in the stories of Christ’s death and resurrection which rings true to me as a man even separated as I am by two thousand years from these events. Each of the four Gospels tells the story slightly differently, but on one point there is absolutely no disagreement – it was women who were at the tomb first on the Sunday morning following Christ’s resurrection. The women were taking the lead, that is to say, in work where women still so very often take the lead – here in relation to grieving and mourning, but more generally in relation to any sort of work which requires facing up to difficult personal issues and demands the exercise of some emotional intelligence.

基督之死而复生的故事中，有一个奇妙的细节，对于我这样一个与此事在时间上间隔了2000年的人来说感觉也是真实的。四部“福音书”都从略微不同的角度讲述了这个故事，但在一点上绝对没有分歧——在基督复生后的周六清晨，是女性首先来到了墓地。也就是说，女性是在引领此事，因为至今这仍然是女性经常起到引领作用的领域——这里是与悲恸与哀悼有关的事，但宏观地说，是与任何种类需要直面困难的个人问题、需要运用情商的领域相关。

The Bible is itself divided into many different books and some of these, I suspect, are more popular with men, others more popular with women, though I don’t know if a survey has been done. The book of Revelation filled with plagues, strange beasts and noisy spiritual warfare might be top with the boys – it’s about the closest you’ll get to car chase anywhere in the Bible. Maybe some of the great heartfelt poetry of the Old Testament, such as in the Song of Songs, is top with the girls. I don’t know. But though I certainly hope that my nine month old daughter chooses a superhero alarm clock in due course, if that is what she wants, if I ever have a boy, I will be hoping a lot more strongly that he takes a look at some of the books the girls prefer to read.

圣经本身就分为许多不同的书，我估计其中一些是男性更喜欢的，而其他可能女性更喜爱，尽管我不知道有没有人就此做过调查。启示录里满是瘟疫、怪兽，喧嚣的宗教战争，这可能是男孩最喜欢的——这是圣经中能找到的最接近竞速追逐场景的部分了。也许旧约中那些伟大的、触动心灵的诗歌——比如雅歌，是女孩最喜欢的。我也不清楚。但是尽管我的确希望我那九个月大的女儿早晚有一天也会选择超人的闹钟，如果她想要的话，如果我有个男孩，我会更加强烈地希望他看一看那些女孩喜欢读的书。