Level 5-Day 16.Naomi Wolf 'A Woman's Place' (3)

When I wrote a book that caused controversy, I saw how big a dragon was this paralysis by niceness.

"The Beauty Myth" argues that newly rigid ideals of beauty are instruments of a backlash against feminism, designed to lower women's self-esteem for a political purpose.

Many positive changes followed the debate.

But all that would dwindle away when someone yelled at me -- as, for instance,cosmetic surgeons did on TV, when I raised questions about silicone implants.

Oh,no, I'd quail, people are mad at me!

Then I read something by the poet Audre Lorde.

She'd been diagnosed with breast cancer.

"I was going to die," she wrote, "sooner or later, whether or not I had even spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you...

What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language."

I began to ask each time: "What's the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?"

Unlike women in other countries, our breaking silence is unlikely to have us jailed, "disappeared"or run off the road at night.

Our speaking out will irritate some people, get us called bitchy or hypersensitive and disrupt some dinner parties.

And then our speaking out will permit other women to speak, until laws are changed and lives are saved and the world is altered forever.

Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen?

Then push yourself a little further than you dare.

Once you start to speak, people will yell at you.

They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it's personal.

And the world won't end.

And the speaking will get easier and easier.

And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had.

And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don't miss them.

And new ones will find you and cherish you.

And you will still flirt and paint your nails, dress up and party, because, as I think Emma Goldman said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."

And at last you'll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth.

And that is not speaking.

翻译

娜奥米·沃尔夫:《女人的位置》(3)

当我写了一本引起争议的书时，我看到了这条被善良麻痹的巨龙有多大。
《美丽的神话》认为，新的严格的美丽理想是反对女权主义的工具，旨在降低女性的自尊，以达到政治目的。
辩论之后发生了许多积极的变化。
但是，当有人对我大喊大叫时，这一切都会消失——比如，当我在电视上提出关于硅胶植入物的问题时，整形外科医生就会这样做。
不，我会退缩，大家都在生我的气!
然后我读了诗人奥德丽·洛德的诗。
她被诊断出患有乳腺癌。
“我迟早会死，”她写道，“不管我自己有没有说出口。我的沉默并没有保护我。你的沉默保护不了你……
你还有什么话没说?你们日复一日地吞下并企图成为你们自己的暴政是什么，直到你们仍然在沉默中为它们感到恶心和死亡?我们已经学会了尊重恐惧，而不是自己对语言的需求。”
我开始每次都问自己:“如果我说出真相，最坏的结果会是什么?”
与其他国家的女性不同，我们打破沉默不太可能让我们被关进监狱、“失踪”或在夜里冲出马路。
我们的直言不讳会激怒一些人，让我们被称为恶毒或敏感，还会扰乱一些晚宴。
然后，我们的发声将允许其他妇女发声，直到法律得到改变，生命得到拯救，世界被永远改变。
下次，问问自己:最坏的结果是什么?
然后把自己逼得比你敢的更远一点。
一旦你开始说话，人们就会对你大喊大叫。
他们会打断你，贬低你，并暗示这是私人恩怨。
世界不会毁灭。
说话会变得越来越容易。
你会发现你已经爱上了你自己的愿景，你可能从来没有意识到你已经爱上了。
你会失去一些朋友和爱人，然后意识到你并不想念他们。
新的人会找到你，珍惜你。
你仍然会调情，涂指甲油，打扮，参加派对，因为，我记得艾玛·戈德曼说过，“如果我不会跳舞，我不想成为你们革命的一部分。”
最后你会非常肯定地知道只有一件事比说出真相更可怕。
那就是不说话。