So I was born on the last day of the last year of the '70s. I was raised on "Free to be you and me" -- (cheering) hip-hop -- not as many woohoos for hip-hop in the house. Thank you. Thank you for hip-hop -- and Anita Hill. (Cheering) My parents were radicals -- (Laughter) who became, well, grown-ups. My dad facetiously says, "We wanted to save the world, and instead we just got rich." We actually just got "middle class" in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but you get the picture. I was raised with a very heavy sense of unfinished legacy.
我出生于70年代 最后一年 的最后一天。 我是听着“自在作自己”-- (注:1974年New Seekers的一首主打歌) (掌声) 和嘻哈音乐长大的-- 这一屋人为嘻哈喝彩的似乎没有那么多。 谢谢,谢谢大家为嘻哈(喝彩)-- 以及安妮塔·希尔斯(因诉讼最高法院大法官的性骚扰而受关注) (喝彩) 我的父母曾经都是激进派-- (笑声) 他们后来终于 长大成为成年人。 我父亲开玩笑地说, “我们曾想拯救世界, 相反,我们只是变得富裕。” 事实上,我们仅仅是中产阶级而已 在科罗拉多州的斯普林斯, 但你懂他的意思。 我是这样在一种浓重的 未完成的使命下长大。
At this ripe old age of 30, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to grow up in this horrible, beautiful time, and I've decided, for me, it's been a real journey and paradox. The first paradox is that growing up is about rejecting the past and then promptly reclaiming it. Feminism was the water I grew up in. When I was just a little girl, my mom started what is now the longest-running women's film festival in the world. So while other kids were watching sitcoms and cartoons, I was watching very esoteric documentaries made by and about women. You can see how this had an influence. But she was not the only feminist in the house.
在三十而立之年, 我思考了许多 在这个恐怖并美好的年代,成年人意味着什么。 就自己而言,我认定 它是一个实实在在的旅程,充满了自相矛盾。 第一个矛盾 是成长意味着拒绝过去 又不断接受它。 女性主义是我成长的羊水。 当我还是个小女孩的时候, 我母亲在着手做现在 世界上最长的女性电影节。 所以当其他孩子们在看情景喜剧和卡通的时候, 我却在看着难懂的 由女性制作的关于女性的纪录片。 不难看出这对我的影响。 我母亲并不是家中唯一的女性主义者。
My dad actually resigned from the male-only business club in my hometown because he said he would never be part of an organization that would one day welcome his son, but not his daughter. (Applause) He's actually here today. (Applause) The trick here is my brother would become an experimental poet, not a businessman, but the intention was really good.
我父亲事实上从 我们家乡一个只有男性的商业俱乐部辞了职 因为他说他永远不想成为 一个某一天只欢迎他的儿子,不欢迎他女儿的组织的一份子。 (掌声) 其实他今天也在现场。 (掌声) 有趣的是, 我的兄弟将成为一个实验性诗人, 而不是商人, 不过初衷的确是很好的。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
In any case, I didn't readily claim the feminist label, even though it was all around me, because I associated it with my mom's women's groups, her swishy skirts and her shoulder pads -- none of which had much cachet in the hallways of Palmer High School where I was trying to be cool at the time. But I suspected there was something really important about this whole feminism thing, so I started covertly tiptoeing into my mom's bookshelves and picking books off and reading them -- never, of course, admitting that I was doing so. I didn't actually claim the feminist label until I went to Barnard College and I heard Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner speak for the first time. They were the co-authors of a book called "Manifesta." So what very profound epiphany, you might ask, was responsible for my feminist click moment? Fishnet stockings. Jennifer Baumgardner was wearing them. I thought they were really hot. I decided, okay, I can claim the feminist label. Now I tell you this -- I tell you this at the risk of embarrassing myself, because I think part of the work of feminism is to admit that aesthetics, that beauty, that fun do matter. There are lots of very modern political movements that have caught fire in no small part because of cultural hipness. Anyone heard of these two guys as an example?
无论如何,我原来并未为自己戴上女性主义者的标牌, 尽管它处处都在, 因为我把它和我母亲在的女性团队联系了起来, 还有她们瑟瑟作响的裙子和肩垫-- 这些在 巴尔默高中的门厅中通通找不到 我那时还曾试着装酷。 但我猜想这整个女性主义的事情中 应该有一些很重要的部分, 于是我开始偷偷地踮着脚尖走到我母亲的书架旁 挑选几本书,读了起来-- 当然,我从来没有承认干过这件事。 其实我一直没有认定自己是女性主义者 直到我进了伯纳德大学 直到第一次听艾米·理查德和珍妮·包姆加德纳的讲话。 她们共同写了一本叫做“宣言”的书。 你也许会问,到底是什么意义深远的顿悟 让我带上女性主义的帽子呢? 渔网袜。 珍妮·包姆加德纳当时正穿着它们呢。 我当时想这袜子真是性感啊。 于是我决定,好,我该贴上女性主义的标签了。 之所以现在,我告诉大家这个-- 还冒着自我难堪的风险, 因为我认为女性主义的一部分的工作 是承认这种审美观,这种美, 以及这种乐趣本身也是很重要的。 有许多现代的政治运动 因为创新时尚文化 产生很大的影响。 大家有听到我用她们两个来做例子吗?
So my feminism is very indebted to my mom's, but it looks very different. My mom says, "patriarchy." I say, "intersectionality." So race, class, gender, ability, all of these things go into our experiences of what it means to be a woman. Pay equity? Yes. Absolutely a feminist issue. But for me, so is immigration. (Applause) Thank you. My mom says, "Protest march." I say, "Online organizing." I co-edit, along with a collective of other super-smart, amazing women, a site called Feministing.com. We are the most widely read feminist publication ever, and I tell you this because I think it's really important to see that there's a continuum.
我要感谢母亲给我带来女权主义的观念, 但我和她的女权主义很不同。 我母亲说“父权主义。” 我说“交集。” 种族, 阶级, 性别, 以及能力 都会逐渐变成 成为一个女人的必然经验。 薪资平等?当然,这绝对是女权议题。 但对我而言,移民也是议题。 谢谢。 我母亲说过“游行示威。” 而我说“在线组织。” 我之前跟着一群非常棒又超级聪明的女人们 一起弄了一个网页 叫做“Feministing.com。” 我们的网站是最广为浏览的女性出版网站。 我告诉你们这个 是因为我觉得看着女性故事延续下去 是一件非常重要的事。
Feminist blogging is basically the 21st century version of consciousness raising. But we also have a straightforward political impact. Feministing has been able to get merchandise pulled off the shelves of Walmart. We got a misogynist administrator sending us hate-mail fired from a Big Ten school. And one of our biggest successes is we get mail from teenage girls in the middle of Iowa who say, "I Googled Jessica Simpson and stumbled on your site. I realized feminism wasn't about man-hating and Birkenstocks." So we're able to pull in the next generation in a totally new way.
女权主义的博客基本上是21世纪中 女性意识的提升。 我们也直接承受了政治影响。 女权主义 是能够让商品从沃尔玛下架的。 曾经有个变态管理员因为寄恐吓信给我们 而被一所前十名的好学校开除。 而我们的最大成功之一 就是我们曾经收过一个爱荷华州的小女孩来信说 “我在搜寻杰西卡·辛普森时, 碰巧进到你们的网站。 它让我了解到女权主义并不是恨男生或是勃肯鞋。” 所以我们能够用一种全心的方式 让下一代加入我们的行列。
My mom says, "Gloria Steinem." I say, "Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Miriam Perez, Ann Friedman, Jessica Valenti, Vanessa Valenti, and on and on and on and on." We don't want one hero. We don't want one icon. We don't want one face. We are thousands of women and men across this country doing online writing, community organizing, changing institutions from the inside out -- all continuing the incredible work that our mothers and grandmothers started. Thank you.
我母亲也曾提过Gloria Steinem(注:她是著名的美国女性人权先锋)。 而我说,“Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Miriam Perez, Ann Friedman, Jessica Valenti, Vanessa Valenti, 还有许许多多的女权主义者。” 我们不要只有一个英雄。 我们不要只有一个偶像。 我们不需要只有一张脸来代替我们所有人。 我们是一起生活在这个国家的数以千万的女人和男人 从事着网絡创作,社区组织, 从体制里开始改变-- 所有人都在从事着这不可思议的工作 从母亲们或祖母们那儿就已经开始的工作。 谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)
Which brings me to the second paradox: sobering up about our smallness and maintaining faith in our greatness all at once. Many in my generation -- because of well-intentioned parenting and self-esteem education -- were socialized to believe that we were special little snowflakes -- (Laughter) who were going to go out and save the world. These are three words many of us were raised with. We walk across graduation stages, high on our overblown expectations, and when we float back down to earth, we realize we don't know what the heck it means to actually save the world anyway. The mainstream media often paints my generation as apathetic, and I think it's much more accurate to say we are deeply overwhelmed. And there's a lot to be overwhelmed about, to be fair -- an environmental crisis, wealth disparity in this country unlike we've seen since 1928, and globally, a totally immoral and ongoing wealth disparity. Xenophobia's on the rise. The trafficking of women and girls. It's enough to make you feel very overwhelmed.
这让我想到第二个矛盾点: 让我们意识到我们的眇小 同时保持我们 伟大的信念。 跟我同年代的很多人-- 因为父母的用心栽培,以及受到自尊式的教育-- 社会上都相信 我们会走出自己的一片天和拯救世界。 (笑声) 因为我们都是最特别的小雪花。 我们曾经伴随着这些长大。 我们走过毕业阶段, 先是高于我们的期待, 然后我们又回到现实, 我们忽然发现自己根本不知道 拯救世界真正的意义。 主流媒体常常描绘我们这个世代 是冷漠的时代。 更准确一点来说 我们其实深感打击。 说句公道话,打击我们的不只这些-- 像是环境危机, 我们国家的贫富差距 不止我们自1928年以来所看到的, 全球 都存在着不道德的,与日俱增的贫富差距。 仇外的倾向逐渐升温,非法贩卖妇女及女童... 这些都足以让我们感到难以承受。
I experienced this firsthand myself when I graduated from Barnard College in 2002. I was fired up; I was ready to make a difference. I went out and I worked at a non-profit, I went to grad school, I phone-banked, I protested, I volunteered, and none of it seemed to matter. And on a particularly dark night of December of 2004, I sat down with my family, and I said that I had become very disillusioned. I admitted that I'd actually had a fantasy -- kind of a dark fantasy -- of writing a letter about everything that was wrong with the world and then lighting myself on fire on the White House steps. My mom took a drink of her signature Sea Breeze, her eyes really welled with tears, and she looked right at me and she said, "I will not stand for your desperation." She said, "You are smarter, more creative and more resilient than that."
在2002年,当我毕业于柏纳大学时 我曾亲身经历过。 我充满热情,准备要有所做为。 我开始为一家非营利公司工作, 我进入研究所,我打电话筹款, 我上街头抗议,我做义工, 但这些似乎都无关紧要。 2004年12月 在某个特别漆黑的夜晚, 我坐下来和我的家人说 我决定不抱任何幻想了 我承认我曾有个幻想--有种黯淡的幻想-- 就是写一封信 关于这世界上所有的错, 然后在白宫的阶梯上 引火自焚。 我妈 喝下一口她最爱的调酒“海风”, 眼里充满了眼泪, 她直直看着我说, “我绝对不会容忍 你的绝望行径。” 她说,“你会更聪明,更有创意 更有弹性,你不应该如此。”
Which brings me to my third paradox. Growing up is about aiming to succeed wildly and being fulfilled by failing really well. (Laughter) (Applause) There's a writer I've been deeply influenced by, Parker Palmer, and he writes that many of us are often whiplashed "between arrogant overestimation of ourselves and a servile underestimation of ourselves." You may have guessed by now, I did not light myself on fire. I did what I know to do in desperation, which is write. I wrote the book I needed to read. I wrote a book about eight incredible people all over this country doing social justice work. I wrote about Nia Martin-Robinson, the daughter of Detroit and two civil rights activists, who's dedicating her life to environmental justice. I wrote about Emily Apt who initially became a caseworker in the welfare system because she decided that was the most noble thing she could do, but quickly learned, not only did she not like it, but she wasn't really good at it. Instead, what she really wanted to do was make films. So she made a film about the welfare system and had a huge impact. I wrote about Maricela Guzman, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, who joined the military so she could afford college. She was actually sexually assaulted in boot camp and went on to co-organize a group called the Service Women's Action Network.
我第三个矛盾点是 长大不过是瞄准巨大的成功 然后彻底失败。 (笑声) (掌声) 影响我很深的作家帕克·帕尔默Parker Palmer(教育、社区、社会改变问题的作者) 他说我们中多数人往往 “在自大,高估与卑微地低估自己中” 鞭励自己。 你现在可以看到 我没有引火自焚。 我做了我在绝望中所做的,就是写作。 我写了本我需要阅读的书。 书中描写我们国家 八位从事社会正义 了不起的人士。 其中有来自底特律之女的Nia Martin-Robinson, 和两个民权运动家, 她将一生奉献于 环境正义。 我写了Emily Apt 一开始她加入社福团体 因为她认为这是她所能做的最崇高的事, 但很快发现她不但不喜欢, 她甚至做不好。 她真正想做的事情,其实是拍电影。 她拍了一部有关社会福利制度的电影 有很大的影响力。 我写了Maricela Guzman ,一个墨西哥移民之女, 她参加军队只是为了付大学学费。 她在新兵训练营被性侵犯 于是她创建了一个叫 女兵行动网的组织。
What I learned from these people and others was that I couldn't judge them based on their failure to meet their very lofty goals. Many of them are working in deeply intractable systems -- the military, congress, the education system, etc. But what they managed to do within those systems was be a humanizing force. And at the end of the day, what could possibly be more important than that? Cornel West says, "Of course it's a failure. But how good a failure is it?" This isn't to say we give up our wildest, biggest dreams. It's to say we operate on two levels. On one, we really go after changing these broken systems of which we find ourselves a part. But on the other, we root our self-esteem in the daily acts of trying to make one person's day more kind, more just, etc.
我从她们之中学到的是 我不能因为一个人没有达到崇高的目标 就认为他们失败。 他们往往在极为棘手的社会体制里工作-- 像是军队、国会 以及教育体制等等。 但是他们设法成为这些体制内 人性化的力量。 到最后 还有什么比这些更重要的呢? Cornel West说,“这当然是个失败。 但这是个多好的失败经验啊!” 这不是要我们放弃伟大的梦想。 这是要我们应该有两种做法。 一个做法是 我们的确要进入这些我们所处的 失败的体系中去。 但另一种做法是把我们的自尊落实到日常生活行动中去 试图使每个人的每一天 都更宽容,更公正等等。
So when I was a little girl, I had a couple of very strange habits. One of them was I used to lie on the kitchen floor of my childhood home, and I would suck the thumb of my left hand and hold my mom's cold toes with my right hand. (Laughter) I was listening to her talk on the phone, which she did a lot. She was talking about board meetings, she was founding peace organizations, she was coordinating carpools, she was consoling friends -- all these daily acts of care and creativity. And surely, at three and four years old, I was listening to the soothing sound of her voice, but I think I was also getting my first lesson in activist work.
当我还是个小女孩的时候, 我有些特奇怪的习惯。 其一是 我习惯躺在我孩童时家里厨房的地板上, 左手吸吮我的拇指 右手握着我妈冰冷的脚趾。 (笑声) 我常听我妈讲电话。 她常常在电话中讨论董事会议, 当时她正创办和平组织, 她要协调合伙用车,她要安慰朋友... 这些所有日常关怀和创意的事等等。 可以肯定的是,在三、四岁的时候, 我听着她安定人心的舒缓声音。 这也是我成为积极活动家的第一课。
The activists I interviewed had nothing in common, literally, except for one thing, which was that they all cited their mothers as their most looming and important activist influences. So often, particularly at a young age, we look far afield for our models of the meaningful life, and sometimes they're in our own kitchens, talking on the phone, making us dinner, doing all that keeps the world going around and around. My mom and so many women like her have taught me that life is not about glory, or certainty, or security even. It's about embracing the paradox. It's about acting in the face of overwhelm. And it's about loving people really well. And at the end of the day, these things make for a lifetime of challenge and reward.
我采访的积极活动人士 毫无共通处,除了她们 都说她们的母亲 是影响她们 成为积极活动家的重要原因。 所以,特别在我们年轻的时候, 我们往往在远方 找寻一个富有意义的生活的模范, 有时这个模范就在我们自家厨房, 讲电话,做晚餐, 尽一切所能让这世界持续前进。 我妈,还有众多像我妈一样的女人 都教育我-人生不是为了荣耀, 或者确定地说,甚至不是为了安全感。 而是欣然接受矛盾。 在难以承受的状况下开始行动。 好好珍爱人们。 在一日结束后, 这些事会让我们的一生 充满挑战和收获无比。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)