What’s Behind Our Obsessionwith the Girl-ish Label我们为何对女孩标签如此痴迷？

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.

在过去几年中，出现了“懒女孩工作”和“番茄女孩”之类的潮流。这些潮流各自反映出一种世俗现象，但这些现象并非如字面所示为女孩或女人特有，本身也并无新意。“懒女孩工作”表明人们渴望一份管理松散的远程工作，有足够的薪水过上称心的生活，即使只付出最低限度的努力也能维持生计。

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”指的是一种微观美学，网络杂志《页岩》将其描述为“令人向往的意大利休闲时尚”。啜饮阿佩罗气泡鸡尾酒、在任何一个平日常吃番茄的地方避暑、躺在海滩上阅读，这些都是“番茄女孩”审美观念和生活方式的基础。

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.

或许现在最热门的潮流是“女孩晚餐”，指的是人们累得做不了一顿正经饭菜，结果吃一堆零食当作晚餐。

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.

这几个近年突然涌现的潮流之间并无太大关联，唯一的共同点就是都被贴上了“女孩”标签——虽然“女孩”潮流的开创者和主要参与者是20多岁的年轻人和成熟的女人。根据谷歌词频统计器的数据，自2000年以来“女孩”一词的使用量不断增长，目前正处于峰值——从无处不在的“女孩”潮流中不难看出这一点。众多女性称自己为“女孩”似乎非常奇怪，甚至显得幼稚，但这一语言趋势并非意味着女性主义的倒退，而是代表少女时代的回归。

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，我们不妨先追溯“女孩”的确切含义。“女孩”一词在13世纪进入英语时用于指代任一性别的孩子，到了14世纪则演变为特指女童。根据《牛津英语词典》的记载，“女孩”一词在17世纪左右甚至专门指代妓女。两个世纪以后，“女孩”是居高临下地称呼任何年龄女性的词语，时至今日可能仍然如此。举例来说，如果一位男士在工作场合称呼一位30岁的女性为“女孩”……这就不太合适了。

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.

现在，“女孩”一词用来指代“一位年轻或相对年轻的女性”。与该词以往所有的定义一样，这一定义也有两个缺陷。其一，“女孩”的意思通常由他人对女性或年轻女性的称呼来定义，而不是女性彼此间的称呼。词典列举的例子，比如“我的女孩”，是从男性视角使用该词的，几乎就好像“女孩”一词的存在是为了帮助别人对女性进行分类。

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，上述种种定义揭示了语言中固有的厌女现象。哈佛大学的人类学教授苏珊·格林哈尔希解释说：“对于大学生年纪的‘男性’，我们有个好用的称呼‘小伙子’，可以避免使用‘男人’或‘男孩’。对于‘女性’就没有类似的称呼，因此我们被迫在‘女孩’和‘女人’之间做出选择。”于是，我们发现自己正在面临一个难题，即缺少一个词来形容既非完全成熟又不是孩子的女性。男性有了称呼，也就有了空间来解决问题、实现成长，女性则不然。女性如果没有实质上步入婚姻，就会一直被视为“女孩”（意味着不成熟、没阅历、脑袋空空）。

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，这恰恰是“女孩”潮流兴起的原因。我们在措辞时越来越多地使用“女孩”，表明我们渴望承认那个尴尬的过渡阶段，希望将“女孩”这个词与常用于描述“女孩文化”的那种以男性为中心又充满恶意的表达加以区分。在本世纪最初的几年里，“女孩”一词的使用量渐渐上升，我们可以看出这个词开始更具体地指代20多岁的人生阶段。到了2010年代，《都市女孩》《杰茜驾到》《破产姐妹》等电视剧反映了我们对“女孩”一词的理解——试图适应成年人世界的年轻女性。

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.

屏幕上和现实中的20多岁女性称呼自己为“女孩”，她们定义了一个新的少女时代。曾经普遍被称为青春期的时期，现在被叫作准成熟期。我们没有创造一个新词来描述“少女时代2.0”也并无不妥，因为新旧二者在诸多方面都很相似。13岁时，一个小女孩要适应新的身体、适应别人如何看待这个身体，还要开始学习如何应对新的世界。23岁时，一个女孩进入由工作场所和纳税表格组成的新世界，她必须再次想清楚自己在这个年龄想成为什么样的人。

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.”

对很多女性而言，原来的少女时代是黑暗的时代。正如散文集《少女时代》的作者梅利莎·费博斯所言，女性正是在少女时期经历了从主体到客体的转变。在这个阶段，她们要面对自己的身体，或者更确切地说，要面对别人对她们身体的评论。在这个阶段，她们第一次因为害怕后果而被迫忍气吞声。在这个阶段，她们开始懂得有人对她们怀有欲望，她们自己也渴望性爱却羞于付诸行动。在这个阶段，她们明白“同意”是种空洞的愿望。正如一位受访对象告诉费博斯的那样，少女时代是“父权制像病毒一样侵占我们大脑”的时期。

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？

原来的少女时代是指一个失去纯真的年代，这使得少女时代的第二次降临变得强势得多。重新来过，至少在名义上，意味着矫正曾经被迫接受的转变。“我要做一个少女，直到27岁”这一模因的变体在网络上时不时地流传开来，其中自有合理之处。在这种新的语言框架下，女孩不仅是一个孩子，还是身处自我发现途中的年轻人。这一次，她们要用自己的方式。不，这并非《芭比》里的情节，但这种亲切感使电影的成功更有意义。我们如此渴望用“女孩”一词来指代一个更成熟的成年人，还有什么能比去年的大片《芭比》更能证明的呢？

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.

事实证明，我们最终都会成为“芭比女孩”。当我们参与“女孩晚餐”“辣妹暴走”之类的潮流时，我们表达了相同的渴望——重新做回少女。这些潮流为“女孩”一词创造了新的语境，让女孩的成长不再受制于男性凝视的引导以及对男性凝视的恐惧。新的语境关注女性之间的共性，哪怕只是散步这种普遍的需求。“女孩”潮流的冲击创造出了一种在女人和女孩之间沟通的语言，用于追求远离直男欲望的群体内部价值。

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.”

给某个事物命名意味着对该事物有支配权。这一行为承认并肯定了一种身份。因此，当一个34岁的女人称自己为“女孩”或享用“女孩晚餐”时，她的做法否定了少女时代仅仅指我们盯着镜子感到羞愧的阶段。相反，“女孩”一词主张少女时代是与其他年轻女性共享的空间，而这一女性群体有慵懒、邋遢的自由。“女孩”一词似乎在说，“是的，女孩，做你自己”。

［译者单位：中国石油大学（北京）］

1 summer避暑。

2 aughts 2000年至2009年的十年时间。

3 = original起初的；原来的。 4 make the rounds〈习语〉广为传播。 5 every so often〈习语〉有时；偶尔。