导语
2019 年底新冠疫情爆发后,华裔乃至亚裔身份在欧美国家甚至遭遇了更大的成见和诋毁。
原文
Is the fox-eye makeup trend racially insensitive?
讲解
文章标题是个疑问句,表达了对狐狸眼妆的质疑,也奠定了整篇文章的讨论基调:
Is the fox-eye makeup trend racially insensitive?
狐狸眼妆风潮是否真的属于种族层面不敏感?
下面进入选段:
Many critics of the latest makeup trend have condemned the accompanying pose of pulling one's eyes back in order to create a more elongated look.
很多批评这种最新潮流的人都谴责这种妆容所搭配的姿势:(双指)把眼角向后拉,以创造一种更加细长的眼型。
accompanying /ə'kʌmpəniiŋ/ 表示伴随的,陪伴的;和…一起发生的。
形容词 elongated /'i:lɔŋɡeitid/ 表示细长的;拉得又细又长的,longer and thinner than usual。它来源于动词 elongate,表示(使)延长;(使)变得细长。
就像前面的引入段所说的,狐狸眼妆的争议不仅在于这种妆容本身,还在于常常与之相伴的姿势:
这是本文中的一个关键段,因为它剑指这种妆容的核心争议之处。如果说我们觉得眼睛的大小和妆容是一种主观的个人审美,说这种妆容是以亚洲的杏仁眼为美,倒也罢了。但是这种妆容搭配的姿势却很难被洗白,因为我们明明知道,在很多场合下,许多居心不良的种族主义者都会用同样的姿势来嘲笑亚洲人的眼型。
就像下一句说的:
After all, it's a common gesture made to bully Asians for their eye shape.
毕竟,这是一个用来嘲笑亚洲人眼型的一种典型手势。
bully 就是欺辱,霸凌,伤害。
As an Asian-American makeup artist who is Chinese, Japanese and white, Marc Reagan, admits he initially perceived the isolated makeup technique to be "an exaggerated variation of the wing-tip liner," but seeing the popularized trend with its pose "stepped over the line into cultural appropriation."
华裔、日裔、白人混血的美国亚裔化妆师马克·里根承认,他最初认为这种独特的化妆技术只是“飞翼眼线的夸张化法”。但他发现,这种流行妆容配套的姿势则“越过了文化挪用的边界”。
这句话生词比较多:
perceive 在这里表示认为,看待,视为,相当于 consider。
isolate 原义表示孤立,这里使用的是它的形容词 isolated,表示个别的;例外的,比如,警方称这次袭击只是个别事件:The police said the attack was an isolated incident.
wing-tip liner 就表示那种画在眼角的眼线,能够对眼睛起到一种延长效果,也可以叫 winged eyeliner。liner 就是 eyeliner 的缩写。
appropriation /əˌprəʊpriˈeɪʃən/ 表示擅自调用,挪用。
variation /veərɪ'eɪʃ(ə)n/ 表示同一事物略微的变化形式。A variation on something is the same thing presented in a slightly different form.
这句话里提出了一个重要概念:cultural appropriation,文化挪用。文化挪用是指某个群体的人擅自采用、模仿另一个群体文化特征的行为。这种行为通常发生在强势或主流文化群体对相对弱势文化群体的挪用上。
比如说你是白人,却非要在身上插羽毛打扮成印第安人,或者是非要把脸涂黑装成黑人,又或者把眼睛画得细细长长的模仿亚洲人。这种处于文化中心地位的人来模仿处于文化边缘地位人群的行为,就是一种越界。
"There is a huge difference between using makeup to create a shape or enhance a feature and a person tugging on their eyes to mimic a natural physical feature attributed to a particular race," he says.
他说:“使用化妆品来塑形或增强面部特征,与使用化妆品来模仿某个特定种族的自然生理特征,两者之间有着天壤之别。”
tug 表示提,拉。
mimic 就表示模仿,而且通常是带有嘲弄意味的模仿。注意它的过去式和过去分词形式是不规则的:mimicked。
feature 在这里表示五官,面容,比如说,她的五官轮廓分明:Her features were strongly defined.
attribute 表示认为……具有……的特性,to believe or say that someone or something has a particular quality。比如,He attributed the firm's success to the efforts of the managing director. 他把公司的成就归功于总经理的努力。
这句话是本文很关键也最公允的一句话,它告诉我们,区分无心的眼妆和文化挪用以及种族主义不敏感的原则是什么。
所以某些广告真的无辜吗?倒也不一定。因为说到底,问题不在于模特本身眼睛的大小,而在于其背后的策划是否故意对其妆容进行了夸张,是否效仿了西方人针对亚裔的刻板印象。
"Once that gesture uses a stereotype and is mimicked by those who are not from the same ethnic origin, that results in an insensitive form of appropriation."
“一旦这种姿势采用了一种刻板印象,并被非同种族的人模仿,就会导致麻木不仁的文化挪用。”
stereotype 就表示(尤指错误的)刻板印象,老套俗见,成见,a fixed idea that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong
Chang adds that while users of the trend may not have racist intentions, it "does not change the fact that Asian-Americans in this country have been subjects of this type of racial mocking."
Chang 补充说,尽管这种眼妆的使用者可能没有种族主义意图,但“这并不能改变在美国的亚裔美国人成为这种种族嘲弄对象的事实”。
subject 在这里表示对象,话题。
所以,这句话再次强调了一个重点,那就是,要判断某种行为是否有种族主义嫌疑,和当事人是否有种族主义的动机并没有必然关系。真正重要的是它所导致的结果。如果有人觉得受到了冒犯,如果这种妆容的流行造成更多人通过上拉眼皮来嘲笑亚裔,那么这种妆容就是极其不妥的。
最后,来一起读一遍原文:
参考译文
Is the fox-eye makeup trend racially insensitive?
狐狸眼妆风潮是否真的属于种族层面不敏感?
Many critics of the latest makeup trend have condemned the accompanying pose of pulling one's eyes back in order to create a more elongated look. After all, it's a common gesture made to bully Asians for their eye shape. As an Asian-American makeup artist who is Chinese, Japanese and white, Marc Reagan, admits he initially perceived the isolated makeup technique to be "an exaggerated variation of the wing-tip liner," but seeing the popularized trend with its pose "stepped over the line into cultural appropriation."
很多批评这种最新潮流的人都谴责这种妆容所搭配的姿势:(双指)把眼角向后拉,以创造一种更加细长的眼型。华裔、日裔、白人混血的美国亚裔化妆师马克·里根承认,他最初认为这种独特的化妆技术只是“飞翼眼线的夸张化法”,但他发现,这种流行妆容配套的姿势则“越过了文化挪用的边界”。
"There is a huge difference between using makeup to create a shape or enhance a feature and a person tugging on their eyes to mimic a natural physical feature attributed to a particular race," he says. "Once that gesture uses a stereotype and is mimicked by those who are not from the same ethnic origin, that results in an insensitive form of appropriation." Chang adds that while users of the trend may not have racist intentions, it "does not change the fact that Asian-Americans in this country have been subjects of this type of racial mocking."
他说:“使用化妆品来塑形或增强面部特征,与使用化妆品来模仿某个特定种族的自然生理特征,两者之间有着天壤之别。”“一旦这种姿势采用了一种刻板印象,并被非同种族的人模仿,就会导致麻木不仁的文化挪用。” Chang 补充说,尽管这种眼妆的使用者可能没有种族主义意图,但“这并不能改变在美国的亚裔美国人成为这种种族嘲弄对象的事实”。
注:本期内容节选自虎课外刊精读:风靡欧美的高级狐狸眼妆如何让亚裔深感不安 - 但汉松
背景一点点
文化挪用(Cultural appropriation)
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