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Finance and econimics
商业报道
Barbie at 50
芭比50年
In the pink
风韵犹存
The versatile pink princess has moved with the times
千面女郎 与时共进
Mulling another career change
考虑职业生涯的另一次改变
FROWNED upon by feminists but fought over by five-year-olds, Barbie has been a victim of controversy as much as fashion ever since her birth, 50 years ago this month.
1959年3月9日，从诞生之日起就一边作为时尚宠儿被5岁儿童争夺而饱受争议，一边受到女权主义者的不满。
The charge-sheet against the pint-sized piece of plastic is long.
这个塑料小人的罪行真是罄竹难书。
She teaches the supremacy of looks over substance;
她过分推崇外貌重于内涵；
she stereotypes outdated gender roles;
她刻意强调过时的性别差异；
she celebrates an impossible body ideal;
她以超完美身材为荣，
and she spreads platinum hair, plastic limbs and a nauseating shade of pink into households from Honolulu to Hamburg.
她把天生的金发，塑料四肢，令人厌恶的粉红色调从檀香山传到汉堡的千万户家庭里。
Yet could it be that Barbie,
然而，这就是芭比娃娃，
far from being a relic from another era, is in fact a woman for our troubled economic times?
她并非是旧时的遗留，事实上，她也许是我们在举步维艰的经济时代里一名女性的形象？
For a start, she may benefit from having a strong, reassuring brand in a downturn.
首先，在经济低迷期，她受益于拥有一个强劲的，令人放心的品牌。
Although global Barbie sales fell by 9% in 2008, battering profits at Mattel, her maker, Barbie topped the 2008 survey by America's National Retail Federation of the most popular girls' toys, relegating even the Nintendo Wii to fifth place.
2008年，虽然全球的芭比娃娃销量下降了9 ％ ，消弱了她的生产商美泰公司的利润，但在美国全国零售商联合会评选的最受欢迎的女孩玩具中名列榜首，而任天堂Wii降级至第五位。
And she has just seen off her hipper rivals, the Bratz.
她送别了她竞争对手， 布拉兹娃娃。
After a long legal battle, a federal judge recently ordered their maker, MGA, to transfer the trademark rights to Mattel.
经过了漫长的官司，一位联邦法官最近下令其制造商，垂询MGA ，转让商标权给美泰。
Barbie is once again the queen of the toyshop.
芭比娃娃再次问鼎玩具商店。
In previous recessions toy sales held up reasonably well, as parents cut back elsewhere.
在以往经济衰退岁月里，当父母削减其他地方的开支时，玩具销售都相当不错。
As the recession deepens, Barbie's conservative values are also back in vogue.
随着经济衰退的加深，芭比娃娃保守价值观又重新流行。
Amid concern about rampant individualism and excess, she evokes a simpler, gentler era.
由于担心个人主义猖獗泛滥，芭比开创了一个较简单，温和的时代。
And since staying in is the new going out, little girls will have more time for old-fashioned play.
暂时的停下来是为了迎接一个新的开始，小女孩们将有更多的时间与芭比娃娃玩耍。
Barbie also embodies career flexibility, a valuable attribute in difficult times.
其次，芭比娃娃也体现了职业生涯的灵活性，这在困难时期非常珍贵。
Having starting out as a fashion model in a black-and-white striped bathing suit, she tiptoed into other professions as fast as they were invented.
从一开始身穿黑白条纹游泳衣的时装模特，她永远踮着脚尖准备穿上高跟鞋到任何新的职业领域。
She was an air hostess in the 1960s as mass aviation took off, an aerobics instructor with leg-warmers in the 1980s, and even a black presidential candidate four years before Barack Obama.
在上世纪60年代，民用航空起飞时，她是一名空中小姐。80年代，她是一个穿着暖腿袜的健美操指导员。甚至四年前在奥巴马当选前，她就是一名黑人总统候选人了。
Time for a new Barbie, dressed as a distressed-debt investor?
时间赋予了全新的芭比，下次她也许打扮成一名受债务困扰的投资者？
