英語聽力材料：女孩不一定要是公主

我們常説，每個女孩都是公主，但是在現代，在這個女性意識覺醒的時代，女孩真的必須都是公主嗎?也許下面這份英語聽力材料會給你一點思考。

Even though women continue to advance in American society, many little girls still get stuck in a world of fairytale princesses and frilly pink dresses. That does not sit well with journalist Peggy Orenstein, who mused about her young daughter's obsession with Disney princesses and predilection for the color pink in a New York Times Magazine essay.

在美國社會，雖然婦女們繼續取得進步，可是小姑娘們仍然很容易迷戀於童話裏的公主和粉紅百褶裙。新聞記者佩姬·歐倫史坦不喜歡這種現狀，她在紐約時報雜誌一篇文章裏探討了她小女兒對迪斯尼童話中公主的迷戀和對粉紅色的偏愛。

She reflects on the overwhelming emphasis on this stereotyped ideal for girls in a new book, "Cinderella Ate My daughter." Orenstein is at war with what she describes as our hyper-feminized girlie-girl consumer culture.

她在一本名為《灰姑娘吃掉了我女兒》的新書中，探討人們為什麼那麼強調女孩兒這種程序化了的幻想。歐倫史坦在跟她所説的過度女性化的嬌嬌女女孩消費文化開戰。

"What is marketed to girls is this idea of pink and pretty. It fuses the idea of appearance with innocence,she and then presents the interest in appearance as being evidence of their innocence," she says.

她説：“向女孩推銷的是這個粉紅和可愛的觀念，一種天真無邪的樣子。於是女孩兒們就去追求一種證明她們天真的外貌。”

"But what's happening is that girls are emphasizing the way they look more and more. So, we're talking about makeup and provocative dresses and all of that kind of things."

“結果是，女孩們越來越看重自己的相貌。所以，我們就在談論化粧和具有挑逗性的服飾，諸如此類的東西。”

"The American Psychological Association put out a report a couple of years ago that said that an early over-emphasis on appearance and play-sexiness can create a vulnerability in girls to the sorts of issues that we as parents worry about such as negative body image, eating disorders, depression and poor sexual choices," she says.

她説：“美國心理學會兩三年前公佈過一份報告説，早期過分強調相貌和性感容易使女孩在我們家長擔心的那種事情上受到了傷害，比如對身體的.負面看法、飲食絮亂、憂鬱和性行為方面糟糕的選擇。”

"The American Academy of Pediatrics just put out a warning to tis member physicians to be more on guard for signs of eating disorders in children under 12 because they've been on the rise and under diagnosed."

“美國兒科學會剛剛對會員醫生髮出一個警告，要他們注意12歲以下孩子飲食絮亂的現象，因為這種情況有上升趨勢，但卻很少被診斷出來。”

When girls define themselves by how they appear to others rather than by how they feel internally, Orenstein says, it sets them up for disappointment.

歐倫史坦指出，當女孩們以她們在別人眼中相貌如何而不是以他們內心如何感受來定義自己的時候，她們會因為失望而不安。

At the same time, Orenstein also says parents have the power to raise healthy, self-confident daughters. They can provide positive alternatives that counter the influence of the media to buy certain products and look a certain way.

同時，歐倫史坦也認為，家長們是有能力培養出健康、自信的女兒的。他們能夠提供正面的東西，來反制鼓動人們買某些產品和裝扮成某種樣子的媒體影響。

"It's not good enough just to say ‘no’ to the things coming at you. You have to find other things that are out there that you can say ‘yes’to, that are fun and joyfully connect your daughter to being a girl, that can broaden and enhance and create options for your daughter and how she defines herself as a girl."

她説：“向衝着你來的東西説‘不’是不夠的。你還得找到你可以説‘是’的東西來，即那些有趣而且能把你的女兒愉快地跟做女孩聯繫起來的東西，讓她有更多更好的選擇。