What’s Behind Our Obsessionwith the Girl-ish Label我們?yōu)楹螌ε撕炄绱税V迷？

Over the past couple of years， trends like Lazy Girl Job and Tomato Girl have emerged that describe a mundane phenomenon that is， unlike the name suggests， not really specific to girls or women and is itself nothing new. The Lazy Girl Job trend speaks to a desire to have a remote job， with chill management， pays enough to live comfortably and sustains itself when you do the bare minimum.

在過去幾年中，出現(xiàn)了“懶女孩工作”和“番茄女孩”之類的潮流。這些潮流各自反映出一種世俗現(xiàn)象，但這些現(xiàn)象并非如字面所示為女孩或女人特有，本身也并無新意?！皯信⒐ぷ鳌北砻魅藗兛释环莨芾硭缮⒌倪h程工作，有足夠的薪水過上稱心的生活，即使只付出最低限度的努力也能維持生計。

Tomato Girl refers to a micro-aesthetic， which Slate describes as “aspirational Italian leisure chic.” Drinking Aperol spritzes， summering1 in any destination where tomatoes are part of the common diet and reading by the beach are all foundational to this aesthetic and lifestyle.

“番茄女孩”指的是一種微觀美學(xué)，網(wǎng)絡(luò)雜志《頁巖》將其描述為“令人向往的意大利休閑時尚”。啜飲阿佩羅氣泡雞尾酒、在任何一個平日常吃番茄的地方避暑、躺在海灘上閱讀，這些都是“番茄女孩”審美觀念和生活方式的基礎(chǔ)。

Perhaps the most popular trend among them right now is the Girl Dinner， which refers to when people are too tired to cook a proper meal and end up eating a bunch of snacks for dinner.

或許現(xiàn)在最熱門的潮流是“女孩晚餐”，指的是人們累得做不了一頓正經(jīng)飯菜，結(jié)果吃一堆零食當作晚餐。

There’s not much that unites these disparate trends that have popped up over the years except for the fact that they’re labeled for girls—even when they were started and predominantly practiced by 20-somethings and grown women. The omnipresence of these trends make it easy to see how the word “girls” has grown in its usage since the 2000s and is currently at its zenith， according to Google Ngram. It may seem weird， even infantilizing， for so many women to refer to themselves as such， but this linguistic trend isn’t a step back for feminism—it’s a reclamation of girlhood.

這幾個近年突然涌現(xiàn)的潮流之間并無太大關(guān)聯(lián)，唯一的共同點就是都被貼上了“女孩”標簽——雖然“女孩”潮流的開創(chuàng)者和主要參與者是20多歲的年輕人和成熟的女人。根據(jù)谷歌詞頻統(tǒng)計器的數(shù)據(jù)，自2000年以來“女孩”一詞的使用量不斷增長，目前正處于峰值——從無處不在的“女孩”潮流中不難看出這一點。眾多女性稱自己為“女孩”似乎非常奇怪，甚至顯得幼稚，但這一語言趨勢并非意味著女性主義的倒退，而是代表少女時代的回歸。

Because what does it really mean to be a girl， anyway？ When the word entered the English language in the 13th century， it was used to refer to children of any gender. In the 14th century， the word evolved to refer specifically to female children. Oxford English Dictionary notes it even referred specifically to prostitutes around the 1600s. Two centuries later， it was used as a condes-cending way to refer to women of any age， which can still be true today. If a man were to call a 30-year-old woman a girl in a workplace setting， for instance， well... it wouldn’t be good.

究其原因，我們不妨先追溯“女孩”的確切含義。“女孩”一詞在13世紀進入英語時用于指代任一性別的孩子，到了14世紀則演變?yōu)樘刂概?。根?jù)《牛津英語詞典》的記載，“女孩”一詞在17世紀左右甚至專門指代妓女。兩個世紀以后，“女孩”是居高臨下地稱呼任何年齡女性的詞語，時至今日可能仍然如此。舉例來說，如果一位男士在工作場合稱呼一位30歲的女性為“女孩”……這就不太合適了。

Now， the word is taken to mean “a young or relatively young woman.” This， like all its past definitions， falls short for two reasons. First， its meaning is typically defined by what others call women or young women—not what they call one another. The dictionary’s example quotes， like “my girl，” use the word from a man’s perspective， almost as if the word exists for the sake of others to classify women.

現(xiàn)在，“女孩”一詞用來指代“一位年輕或相對年輕的女性”。與該詞以往所有的定義一樣，這一定義也有兩個缺陷。其一，“女孩”的意思通常由他人對女性或年輕女性的稱呼來定義，而不是女性彼此間的稱呼。詞典列舉的例子，比如“我的女孩”，是從男性視角使用該詞的，幾乎就好像“女孩”一詞的存在是為了幫助別人對女性進行分類。

Second， the definitions reveal the inherent misogyny found in language. As explained by Harvard Professor of Anthropology Susan Greenhalgh， “For college-aged ‘males，’ we have the helpful term ‘guys，’ which allows us to avoid both ‘men’ and ‘boys.’ For ‘females，’ there is no similar term， forcing us to choose between ‘girls’ and ‘women.’” Hence， the conundrum we find ourselves in now. There is no word to describe a woman who is not quite a full adult but not a child. While men are afforded a name， and thus space， to figure things out and come of age， women are not. Women are stuck being “girls” （read： immature， innocent， inane） until they essentially get married.

其二，上述種種定義揭示了語言中固有的厭女現(xiàn)象。哈佛大學(xué)的人類學(xué)教授蘇珊·格林哈爾希解釋說：“對于大學(xué)生年紀的‘男性’，我們有個好用的稱呼‘小伙子’，可以避免使用‘男人’或‘男孩’。對于‘女性’就沒有類似的稱呼，因此我們被迫在‘女孩’和‘女人’之間做出選擇。”于是，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己正在面臨一個難題，即缺少一個詞來形容既非完全成熟又不是孩子的女性。男性有了稱呼，也就有了空間來解決問題、實現(xiàn)成長，女性則不然。女性如果沒有實質(zhì)上步入婚姻，就會一直被視為“女孩”（意味著不成熟、沒閱歷、腦袋空空）。

But that’s where the trends come in. The growing usage of the word girl in our lexicon speaks to the desire to acknowledge that awkward transitory phase and to divorce the word from the male-centered and toxic ways girl culture is so often depicted. The early aughts2 is when the word girl began rising in usage， and it’s here one can see how the term began to more specifically reference this 20-something stage in life. By the 2010s， TV shows like “Girls，” “New Girl” and “2 Broke Girls” reflected our concept of the word as young women attempting to adjust to adulthood.

然而，這恰恰是“女孩”潮流興起的原因。我們在措辭時越來越多地使用“女孩”，表明我們渴望承認那個尷尬的過渡階段，希望將“女孩”這個詞與常用于描述“女孩文化”的那種以男性為中心又充滿惡意的表達加以區(qū)分。在本世紀最初的幾年里，“女孩”一詞的使用量漸漸上升，我們可以看出這個詞開始更具體地指代20多歲的人生階段。到了2010年代，《都市女孩》《杰茜駕到》《破產(chǎn)姐妹》等電視劇反映了我們對“女孩”一詞的理解——試圖適應(yīng)成年人世界的年輕女性。

On screen and IRL， 20-something women referring to themselves as girls define a new period of girlhood. What was once commonly referred to as a time of adolescence is now a time for quasi-maturity. It’s also fitting that a new word wasn’t invented to speak about Girlhood 2.0， because they’re alike in a lot of ways. At 13， a young girl is adjusting to a new body， how that body is now being perceived by others and coming to grips with how to navigate this new world. At 23， a girl enters a new world that is the workplace and tax forms and now has to figure out again who she wants to be at this age.

屏幕上和現(xiàn)實中的20多歲女性稱呼自己為“女孩”，她們定義了一個新的少女時代。曾經(jīng)普遍被稱為青春期的時期，現(xiàn)在被叫作準成熟期。我們沒有創(chuàng)造一個新詞來描述“少女時代2.0”也并無不妥，因為新舊二者在諸多方面都很相似。13歲時，一個小女孩要適應(yīng)新的身體、適應(yīng)別人如何看待這個身體，還要開始學(xué)習(xí)如何應(yīng)對新的世界。23歲時，一個女孩進入由工作場所和納稅表格組成的新世界，她必須再次想清楚自己在這個年齡想成為什么樣的人。

For many women， OG3 Girlhood was the dark ages. As Melissa Febos， author of the book of essays “Girlhood，” notes， it is in this time that women endure the transformation from subject to object. It’s here where they confront their bodies， or rather confront other people recognizing their bodies. When they are first forced to swallow their “no” in fear of the consequences. When they learn that they are desired and feel desire for sex but are shamed for acting on it. When they learn that consent is an empty aspiration. Girlhood is a time when， as one interview subject tells Febos， “patriarchy colonizes our brains like a virus.”

對很多女性而言，原來的少女時代是黑暗的時代。正如散文集《少女時代》的作者梅利莎·費博斯所言，女性正是在少女時期經(jīng)歷了從主體到客體的轉(zhuǎn)變。在這個階段，她們要面對自己的身體，或者更確切地說，要面對別人對她們身體的評論。在這個階段，她們第一次因為害怕后果而被迫忍氣吞聲。在這個階段，她們開始懂得有人對她們懷有欲望，她們自己也渴望性愛卻羞于付諸行動。在這個階段，她們明白“同意”是種空洞的愿望。正如一位受訪對象告訴費博斯的那樣，少女時代是“父權(quán)制像病毒一樣侵占我們大腦”的時期。

OG Girlhood is a time of innocence lost which makes its second coming that much more empowering. To do it over again， at least in name， is to reclaim the transformation that was forced upon you. A variation of the meme， “I’ll be a teenage girl until I’m 27” makes the rounds4 every so often5 online， and it makes sense. Under this new linguistic trajectory， a girl isn’t just a child， she’s a young adult somewhere along her journey of self-discovery. This time， on her own terms. No， it’s not the plot of “Barbie，” but its familiarity makes the movie’s success make all the more sense. What better testament to our desire to use “girl” as a reference to a more mature coming-of-age is there than last year’s blockbuster？

原來的少女時代是指一個失去純真的年代，這使得少女時代的第二次降臨變得強勢得多。重新來過，至少在名義上，意味著矯正曾經(jīng)被迫接受的轉(zhuǎn)變?！拔乙鲆粋€少女，直到27歲”這一模因的變體在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上時不時地流傳開來，其中自有合理之處。在這種新的語言框架下，女孩不僅是一個孩子，還是身處自我發(fā)現(xiàn)途中的年輕人。這一次，她們要用自己的方式。不，這并非《芭比》里的情節(jié)，但這種親切感使電影的成功更有意義。我們?nèi)绱丝释谩芭ⅰ币辉~來指代一個更成熟的成年人，還有什么能比去年的大片《芭比》更能證明的呢？

It turns out we’re all a “Barbie Girl” in the end. When we participate in trends like Girl Dinner and Hot Girl Walk， we speak to this same desire to redo girlhood. Rather than coming of age under the direction and fear of the male gaze， the trends create a new context for the word girl that is concerned with the commonality between women， even if it’s in the universal need to go for a walk. The onslaught of girl trends creates a language that operates between women and girls， reaching for a communal interiority divorced from straight male desire.

事實證明，我們最終都會成為“芭比女孩”。當我們參與“女孩晚餐”“辣妹暴走”之類的潮流時，我們表達了相同的渴望——重新做回少女。這些潮流為“女孩”一詞創(chuàng)造了新的語境，讓女孩的成長不再受制于男性凝視的引導(dǎo)以及對男性凝視的恐懼。新的語境關(guān)注女性之間的共性，哪怕只是散步這種普遍的需求?！芭ⅰ背绷鞯臎_擊創(chuàng)造出了一種在女人和女孩之間溝通的語言，用于追求遠離直男欲望的群體內(nèi)部價值。

To name something is to have power over it. It acknowledges and affirms an identity. So when a 34-year-old woman refers to herself as a girl or eating a girl dinner， it negates the idea that girlhood is merely a time when we stare shamefully at the mirror. Instead， it asserts girlhood as a shared space between other young women who are free to be lazy and unkept. It seems to say， “Yes， girl. You do you.”

給某個事物命名意味著對該事物有支配權(quán)。這一行為承認并肯定了一種身份。因此，當一個34歲的女人稱自己為“女孩”或享用“女孩晚餐”時，她的做法否定了少女時代僅僅指我們盯著鏡子感到羞愧的階段。相反，“女孩”一詞主張少女時代是與其他年輕女性共享的空間，而這一女性群體有慵懶、邋遢的自由。“女孩”一詞似乎在說，“是的，女孩，做你自己”。

［譯者單位：中國石油大學(xué)（北京）］

1 summer避暑。

2 aughts 2000年至2009年的十年時間。

3 = original起初的；原來的。 4 make the rounds〈習(xí)語〉廣為傳播。 5 every so often〈習(xí)語〉有時；偶爾。