Could a woman get pregnant, ran one enquiry, if a man and a woman sleeping alone thought of making love at the same time? (Answer: “There are no angels to carry your sperm to the person you dream of.”) If acidic substances prevented pregnancy, ran another, could orange or lemon juice be poured into the vagina after sex? (“Are you a bhel puri vendor? Where did you get this weird idea?”)
有人提问,如果男人和女人分居时,两人同时想做爱,女人会怀孕吗?(回答:“世上没有天使会把你的精子送进爱人肚子里。”)还有人提问,如果酸性物质可以阻止受孕,那么性交后可以把橘子汁或柠檬汁倒进阴道利吗?(回答:“阁下是卖贝尔普里的小贩吗?”这些稀奇古怪的想法怎么出来的?”)
Young men—especially young men, though about three in ten who wrote were women—knew that if they wanted sprightly clarity on sexual matters they could find it on page 34 of the Mirror; just as, in Britain, women—especially women, though men were also firm fans—searched out Ms Whitehorn’s trenchant views on life in the Sunday Observer for more than 30 years, and after that in Saga magazine.
年轻男性——尤其是年轻男性,尽管十分之三的提问者是女性——都了解,如果想对性问题有进一步的、详细的认识,他们可以看看《镜报》第34页;就像在英国,女性——尤其是女性,尽管男性也是怀特霍恩的忠实粉丝——30多年来一直在周日的《观察家报》和《故事杂志》上寻找怀特霍恩女士字字珠玑的人生感悟。
Both she, and he, cut through the confusion with a strong sense of mission. Ms Whitehorn was the first columnist in Britain to give a voice to ordinary, non-decorative, muddling-through women, and became the model for the dozens of confessional columns that followed.
怀特霍恩和沃特萨都以强烈的使命感为众人解惑。怀特霍恩女士是英国第一个为普通、平凡、懵懂过活的女性发声的专栏作家,并成为随后数十个自述性专栏的模范人物。
She had started in journalism, a patriarchal club as it was in the 1950s, typecast and moody-looking in the fashion section, but quickly encouraged women (in books and broadcasts, as well as columns) to overcome any obstacles of biology, maternity or delicacy, and to write about anything and everything.
起初,她在新闻界工作,在20世纪50年代,这还是一个由男性主导的行业,她在时尚圈也摸爬滚打过一阵儿,她看上去一副阴晴不定的样子,但很快就(在书籍、广播和专栏中)鼓励女性克服生理、生育或敏感方面的障碍,随心所欲地创作。
As for Dr Watsa, his campaign, almost single-handed at the start, was to talk plainly and naturally to Indians about sex. From 1974, when he joined the national Family Planning Association, he promoted sex education in schools, trained teachers, wrote manuals and ran workshops, daring to raise against considerable hostility a subject that people too often wouldn’t face.
而沃特萨医生,他的事业一开始几乎是单打独斗,与印度人坦率而自然地谈论性问题。从1974年加入国家计划生育协会开始,他就在学校里推广性教育,培训教师,编写手册,开办讲习班,敢于面对各方的敌意,对人们羞于启齿的话题畅所欲言。
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