女性之間關(guān)于身材的特殊對話：肥胖聊天

Over winter break, Carolyn Bates, a college senior, and a friend each picked out five pairs of jeans at a Gap store in Indianapolis and eagerly tried them on. But the growing silence in their separate fitting rooms was telling. At last, one friend called out, “Dang it, these fit everywhere but my thighs! I wish my legs weren’t so huge.” The response: “My pair is way too long. I need to be taller or skinnier!”

寒假時，讀大學(xué)三年級的卡蘿琳·貝茨(Carolyn Bates)和一個朋友去了印第安納波利斯的蓋普(Gap)商店，每人挑了五條牛仔褲，高高興興地去試穿?？墒?，她們倆在各自的更衣室里卻一直保持著沉默，似乎在說明著一點什么。最后，一個人先叫了起來：“哎，這條褲子哪哪兒都合適，就是大腿不行!我的大腿要是沒這么粗就好了!”另一個人回話：“我挑的這條太長了。我得要么長高點，要么變瘦點!”

The young women slumped out of the store, feeling lousy.

兩個女孩頹然步出商店，心中郁悶不已。

This exchange is what psychological researchers call “fat talk,” the body-denigrating conversation between girls and women. It’s a bonding ritual they describe as “contagious,” aggravating poor body image and even setting the stage for eating disorders. Some researchers have found that fat talk is so embedded among women that it often reflects not how the speaker actually feels about her body but how she is expected to feel about it.

這段對話用心理學(xué)研究者的說法，叫“肥胖聊天”，是女性之間進行的貶損體態(tài)的對話。據(jù)心理學(xué)家說，這種女性加強感情聯(lián)系的儀式具有“傳染性”，它會惡化對身體形象的判斷，甚至可能為患飲食失調(diào)癥埋下伏筆。一些研究人員已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)，“肥胖聊天”在女性間根深蒂固，它往往并不能反映說話人對自己身體的真實感受，而是反映出他人對其身體形象的看法。

And while research shows that most women neither enjoy nor admire fat talk, it compels them. In one study, 93 percent of college women admitted to engaging in it.

同時，研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)，盡管大部分女性既不享受也不欣賞肥胖聊天，卻會被迫參與。在一項研究中，有93%的大學(xué)女生承認自己曾參與過這類對話。

Alexandra F. Corning, a research associate professor in psychology at the University of Notre Dame, wondered whether a woman’s size would affect her likability when she engaged in fat talk. As an online experiment, Dr. Corning showed 139 undergraduates photos of two thin and two overweight women, each making either a positive or negative remark about her body.

圣母大學(xué)(University of Notre Dame)心理學(xué)研究助理教授亞歷山德拉·F·康寧(Alexandra F. Corning)想知道，在女性參與肥胖聊天時，她的身形是否會影響其受歡迎程度。于是她做了一項在線試驗，向139名大學(xué)生展示了兩名苗條女性和兩名超重女性的照片，這四個人每個都對自己的身形發(fā)表了或正面或負面的評價。

Because of the stigma against heavier people, Dr. Corning expected that the most popular option would be a thin woman who made positive comments about her body. But she found that wasn’t the case.

由于胖人會遭到恥笑，康寧博士本以為大部分人更喜歡的應(yīng)該是苗條且對身形做出正面評判的女性。但她發(fā)現(xiàn)情況并非如此。

The most likable woman chosen by the students was overweight and quoted as saying: “I know I’m not perfect, but I love the way I look. I know how to work with what I’ve got, and that’s all that matters.”

學(xué)生們最喜歡的女性是這種類型的——她身材超重，且這樣表示：“我知道自己并不完美，但我喜歡自己的樣子。我知道該如何面對自己的長相，這才最重要。”

The results were heartening, Dr. Corning said, a glimmer that nearly two decades of positive body-image campaigns may be taking hold.

康寧博士說，這個結(jié)果鼓舞人心，它暗示著近20年的“正視身體形象運動”或許取得了成效。

But, she acknowledged, her experiment had limitations. “Are the students really liking these women the most? Or are they saying it because they think they should?” said Dr. Corning. “They might like them more, but would they really want to hang out with them?”

但她同時承認，這項試驗有局限性。“學(xué)生們真的最喜歡這一類女性嗎?還是說，她們之所以這么選，只因為她們覺得自己應(yīng)當(dāng)如此?”康寧博士追問，“她們也許最喜歡這種女性，可她們愿意真心和對方結(jié)交嗎?”

Renee Engeln, who directs the Body and Media Lab at Northwestern University, cautioned that “we have complicated reactions to confident women in general, and particularly to women who are confident about their bodies. Women sometimes see them as arrogant.”

西北大學(xué)(Northwestern University)身體與媒體實驗室主任蕾妮·恩格因(Renee Engeln)提出警告，“對于自信的女性，我們得到的反應(yīng)非常復(fù)雜，而那些對自己身材非常自信的女性，取得的反應(yīng)尤其如此。有時候，女性會覺得這類人太狂妄自大。”

Fat talk has insinuated itself among men, too, Dr. Engeln added, though it is far less frequent than with women. In addition, men are more likely to place emphasis on different issues, like muscular bulk or being too thin, something women rarely fret about, she said.

恩格因博士進一步說，肥胖聊天在男性中間同樣存在，不過發(fā)生的頻率遠比女性要小。此外，男人往往把重點放在其他問題上，比如肌肉塊的大小或者身材太瘦，而女性根本不會抱怨這類事情。