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Social change

社會的改變

The weaker sex

弱男子

Blue-collar men in rich countries are in trouble. Theymust learn to adapt

在發達國家的藍領男性群體正處于困境中，他們必須學會適應。

AT FIRST glance the patriarchy appears to be thriving. More than 90% of presidents andprime ministers are male, as are nearly all big corporate bosses. Men dominate finance,technology, films, sports, music and even stand-up comedy. In much of the world they stillenjoysocial and legal privileges simply because they have a Y chromosome. So it might seemodd to worry about the plight of men.

父系社會現在咋一看似乎正興盛。超過90%的國家總統總理，和幾乎所有大型公司的大boss都是男性。男性統治著經濟，科技，企業，體育，音樂，甚至連說相聲的都基本是男的。在大多數國家里男人僅僅因為擁有一條Y染色體便享有在社會和法律上的特權，這樣看來，擔心男性的“悲催命運”般的困境似乎是在杞人憂天。

Yet there is plenty of cause for concern. Men cluster at the bottom as well as the top. They arefar more likely than women to be jailed, estranged from their children, or to kill themselves.They earn fewer university degrees than women. Boys in the developed world are 50% morelikely to flunk basic maths, reading and science entirely.

但有卻又大量的原由讓人不得不擔心。男性群體從渣男到精英男，他們在被關進監獄啊，被他們的孩子疏遠嫌棄啊，或者自殺率啊都遠遠大于女性，卻在取得更多的大學學位上敗給了女性。在發達國家中，有50%左右的男孩會在基礎數學，閱讀和科學學科上掛掉。

One group in particular is suffering. Poorly educated men in rich countries have had difficultycoping with the enormous changes in the labour market and the home over the past half-century. As technology and trade have devalued brawn, less-educated men have struggled tofind a role in the workplace. Women, on the other hand, are surging into expanding sectorssuch as health care and education, helped by their superior skills. As education has becomemore important, boys have also fallen behind girls in school (except at the very top). Men wholose jobs in manufacturing often never work again. And men without work find it hard to attracta permanent mate. The result, for low-skilled men, is a poisonous combination of no job, nofamily and no prospects.

在男性群體中又有一類人尤其遭罪。在過去的半個世紀里，發達國家里的受教育程度低的男性已經非常難應對發生了巨變的勞工市場和家庭。現代技術革新和貿易已經使原先的靠勞力形式的肌肉男的價值直線下降，缺少教育的男性，不得不在職場中苦苦掙扎，才能博得一席之地。相反的，女性卻依靠著自身出眾的技能，在像醫療衛生和教育這樣的領域里大放異彩。教育已經變成更重要的事情，而男孩卻學校里被女孩甩在了身后(尖端領域學科除外)。從工廠失業的男性常從此不再去工作。而沒有工作的男性會發現去吸引永久的伴侶是件非常難的事。由此導致低技術的男性被無工作，無家庭，無前景的“三無”劇毒環環圍住。

From nuclear families to fissile ones

從核心家庭到易碎家庭

Those on the political left tend to focus on economics. Shrinking job opportunities for men,they say, are entrenching poverty and destroying families. In America pay for men with only ahigh-school certificate fell by 21% in real terms between 1979 and 2013; for women with similarqualifications it rose by 3%. Around a fifth of working-age American men with only a high-school diploma have no job.

支持左翼 的人傾向于專注于經濟，他們認為減少男性工作的機會會加劇貧窮，并，并摧毀家庭。在美國，只有高中學歷的男性的實際收入，從1979年到2013年減低了21%，而同等學歷的女性，在此期間的實際收入卻提高了3%。約有5分之一的只有高中學歷的處在工作適齡的男性，處在失業中。

Those on the right worry about the collapse of the family. The vast majority of women wouldprefer to have a partner who does his bit both financially and domestically. But they wouldrather do without one than team up with a layabout, which may be all that is on offer: Americanmen without jobs spend only half as much time on housework and caring for others as dowomen in the same situation, and much more time watching television.

支持右翼的人擔心著家庭的崩潰。絕大多數的女性傾向于和愿兼顧家里財政收入職能和家務勞動職能的男性成為兩口子。她們寧愿單身也不愿隨便和一個游手好閑的盧瑟勉強過一輩子，而這是有依據的：美國失業男性僅僅只付出同等條件下失業女性的一半的時間來做家務事和照顧彼此的生活，這些男人會花更多的時間來看電視。

Hence the unravelling of working-class families. The two-parent family, still the norm among theelite, is vanishing among the poor. In rich countries the proportion of births outside marriagehas trebled since 1980, to 33%. In some areas where traditional manufacturing has collapsed,it has reached 70% or more. Children raised in broken homes learn less at school, are morelikely to drop out and earn less later on than children from intact ones. They are also not verygood at forming stable families of their own.

因此工人階級的家庭變的更易解體。雙親家庭這種形式還是精英階層的標配，而這種家庭形式卻在窮人中正在消失。在發達國家，非婚生子占新生兒的比重比1980年高出了3倍，已經達到了33%。而在一些傳統制造業崩壞的地區，這一比例達到70%甚至更高。生活在破碎家庭里的孩子比起一般家庭的孩子而言，在學校里會學的更少，更可能輟學和收入較低。同時，因為不善于處理家庭問題，他們自己日后的家庭也趨于不穩定(簡言之單親家庭的孩子長大后更易于組成新的單親家庭)。

These two sides often talk past each other. But their explanations are not contradictory: botheconomics and social change are to blame, and the two causes reinforce each other.Moreover, these problems are likely to get worse. Technology will disrupt more industries,creating benefits for society but rendering workers who fail to update their skills redundant.The OECD, a think-tank, predicts that the absolute number of single-parent households willcontinue to rise in nearly all rich countries. Boys who grow up without fathers are more likely tohave trouble forming lasting relationships, creating a cycle of male dysfunction.

這兩種政治傾向的討論話題往往會相互交叉重疊。但二者的觀點卻并不矛盾：經濟狀況和社會這二者的變革都是造成此類現狀的原因，而這二者還互為因果，形成惡性循環。此外，這些問題可能變得更糟。科技將瓦解更多的行業，為社會創造更多的價值，但也將使更多的無法升級自身技能的勞動者失業。 經濟合作與發展組織里的一個諸葛天團預測單親家庭的比例定會繼續在所有發達國家中上升。在沒有父性角色的家庭長大的男孩，將更可能不能處理好長久關系(如夫妻關系)以至于形成新的單親家庭，由此形成一個男性功能紊亂的死循環。

Tinker, tailor, soldier, hairdresser

鍋匠，裁縫，士兵和美發師

What can be done? Part of the solution lies in a change in cultural attitudes. Over the pastgeneration, middle-class men have learned that they need to help with child care, and havechanged their behaviour. Working-class men need to catch up. Women have learned that theycan be surgeons and physicists without losing their femininity. Men need to understand thattraditional manual jobs are not coming back, and that they can be nurses or hairdresserswithout losing their masculinity.

那么問題來了，我們能做什么呢?其一在于改變文化態度。在過去的一代，中產階層的男士知曉了他們需要幫忙照看小孩，并由此改變了他們的行為。工人階層的男士們需要加緊腳步趕上來了。女士知曉了她們可以成為外科醫師和物理學家而不失其女性魅力。男人們需要明白傳統的體力工作一去不復返，他們可以成為護士或美發師而不失其男性霸氣側漏之美。

Policymakers also need to lend a hand, because foolish laws are making the problem worse.America reduces the supply of marriageable men by locking up millions of young males for non-violent offences and then making it hard for them to find work when they get out (in Georgia,for example, felons are barred from feeding pigs, fighting fires or working in funeral homes). Anumber of rich countries discourage poor people from marrying or cohabiting by cutting theirbenefits if they do.

政府決策人也需搭把手，因為愚蠢的法令會令問題變得更糟。美國減少了對被關押的以百萬數計的非暴力犯罪的處于適婚年齡的年輕男子的支持，并在他們出獄后找工作這種事上還要制絆腳石造(以喬治亞州為例，罪犯被禁止從事養豬，救火或在殯葬館工作)。在一些發達國家，為了阻止窮人結婚或者同居這一目的，通過如果他們這么干的話就砍掉他們的福利這種手段來達到。

Even more important than scrapping foolish policies is retooling the educational system, whichwas designed in an age when most men worked with their muscles. Politicians need to recognisethat boys'underachievement is a serious problem, and set about fixing it. Some sensiblepolicies that are good for everybody are particularly good for boys. Early-childhood educationprovides boys with more structure and a better chance of developing verbal and social skills.Countries with successful vocational systems such as Germany have done a better job thanAnglo-Saxon countries of motivating non-academic boys and guiding them into jobs, butpolicymakers need to reinvent vocational education for an age when trainees are more likely toget jobs in hospitals than factories.

不過比起廢棄愚蠢的政策，改革設計于大多數男人都是用肌肉(而非腦)工作的年代的教育系統顯得更為重要。政治家門應該意識到男孩們的學習成績不良師一個很嚴峻的問題，并應立足于改善之。一些明智的政策是為每個人都好，特別是對男孩。早期兒童教育會提供男孩們更系統并更能更好的發展他們的口語能力和社會技能。有著成功的職業教育系統的國家如德國，在鼓勵男孩去學術化，重職業化，并指導他們工作上，已經做的比起盎格魯-撒克遜國家而言要好的多了。但政策制定者應將恢復職業教育的重心放在使受訓者更傾向于日后在醫院工作而不是在工廠工作這種時代要求上。

More generally, schools need to become more boy-friendly. They should recognise that boys liketo rush around more than girls do: it’s better to give them lots of organised sports andenergy-eating games than to dose them with Ritalin or tell them off for fidgeting. They need toprovide more male role models: employing more male teachers in primary schools will bothsupply boys with a male to whom they can relate and demonstrate that men can be teachersas well as firefighters.

更廣泛而言，學校需要變得更親男孩化一些。他們應該意識到男孩比起女孩而言就是會更可能到處闖禍：比起給他們吃藥或告誡他們不要亂動而言，最好還是提供給他們一些有組織的運動和耗費精力的游戲。他們需要男性榜樣角色：在小學階段，雇傭更多的男性教師，這不但可以給男孩子提供他們可以認同的男性角色，還可以為男人可以像成為消防員一樣的成為教師提供實證。

The growing equality of the sexes is one of the biggest achievements of the post-war era:people have greater opportunities than ever before to achieve their ambitions regardless oftheir gender. But some men have failed to cope with this new world. It is time to give them ahand.

男女越來越平等是戰后我們取得的重大成就之一：比起以前，現今人們不論性別都可以擁有更好的機會去實現他們的夢想。但是一些男士未能適應這個新的世界，是時候對他們伸出援手了。

【重點講解】

1.learn to 得知;學會

例句:Eventually, you'll learn to cry that on theinside.

終有一天，你會學會讓淚往心里流。

2.appear to 似乎;好像

例句:By all accounts, Rodger would appear to be afine fellow.

據說，羅杰是個好小伙。

3.plenty of 許多;大量的

例句:There were plenty of servants to wait on her.

有很多仆人服侍她。

4.likely to 傾向于;可能要

例句:The fires are likely to permanently deforest the land.

這些火災很可能會徹底毀掉這片土地上的森林。