從比基尼到布基尼——女人的身體是戰(zhàn)場

PARIS — The policeman in the photo is nattily attired and appears to have a slight smirk as he writes out a ticket for the woman standing before him awkwardly in her offending swimwear; perhaps he enjoys making her feel uncomfortable.

巴黎――照片中的警察衣著整潔，好像帶著一絲譏笑，為局促地站在面前、身著違規(guī)泳裝的女人開罰單;或許能把她弄得不自在讓他覺得很開心。

No, she is not wearing a burkini.

不，她穿的不是布基尼(burkini)。

The photo dates from 1957. The woman is wearing a bikini on the beach at Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast. At the time, Italy prohibited the revealing bathing suit; it was too immodest to be worn in public.

這幅照片來自1957年。圖上的女人穿著比基尼，身在意大利亞得里亞海邊的里米尼海灘。當時，意大利禁止穿著這種暴露的泳裝;在公共場合穿它被認為很不合宜。

In the midst of France’s fight over banning the burkini, the bikini is celebrating its 70th anniversary, and photographs chronicling its debut and early history in the 1940s, '50s and '60s are on display in one of Paris’ chic galleries, prompting parallels to the uproar over the burkini today.

在法國禁止布基尼引發(fā)的紛爭中，比基尼迎來了它的70周年紀念，巴黎一家時尚畫廊展出的照片記載了它的初次登場，在20世紀40年代、50年代和60年代的早期歷史，與目前布基尼激起的喧囂恰好形成對照。

What is it about women’s swimwear and more generally women’s attire that over and over in history has attracted controversy and impelled societies to legislate or regulate women’s choices?

女人的泳裝，以及總體上的女性服飾在歷史上一再引發(fā)爭議，迫使社會對女性的選擇進行立法或作出規(guī)定，這都是為了什么呢?

Historians, sociologists and anthropologists have argued about it for decades, but the seemingly simplistic statement that women’s bodies are a battleground has some truth to it. Formally or informally, men (primarily) have been making rules about women’s attire for a very long time.

歷史學(xué)家、社會學(xué)家和人類學(xué)家為此爭論了幾十年，但是“女人的身體是戰(zhàn)場”這個看似過分簡單的陳述，也包含著幾分真理。長期以來，(主要是)男性以正式或非正式的方式，一直在為女性衣著制定規(guī)則。

“Can’t we decide what we want to wear in 2016?” wondered Sarah Fekih, 23, from Lyon, France, in a comment she wrote to The New York Times. “If one wishes to dress skimpily or to be almost nude or to be covered from head to toe, isn’t that a personal choice that cannot be dictated by law?”

“2016年，我們難道不能自己決定想穿什么嗎?”現(xiàn)年23歲、來自法國里昂的莎拉·菲奇(Sarah Fekih)在給《紐約時報》的評論中寫道。“如果一個人希望穿得暴露、或者近乎裸體、或者從頭到腳遮蓋起來，這難道不是個人的選擇、不受法律制約的嗎?”

Of course, the burkini debate is not only about feminism. It is foremost a debate about the visibility and presence of Islam in France, and it comes in the context of the most recent act of terror to traumatize the country, this one in Nice, on the Mediterranean coast.

當然，關(guān)于布基尼的爭論不止關(guān)乎女權(quán)主義，它首先是一場關(guān)于伊斯蘭教在法國的存在及其公開形象的爭論，而且其背景是最近重創(chuàng)了這個國家的一場恐怖襲擊，事件就發(fā)生在地中海邊的尼斯。

On July 14, a man drove a cargo truck into crowds of people there, killing 86 and wounding 300. The Islamic State group later called him one of its “soldiers.”

7月14日在尼斯，一個男人開著一輛貨運卡車沖進人群，導(dǎo)致86人死亡，300人受傷。伊斯蘭國(Islamic State)事后稱此人是它的“戰(zhàn)士”。

Less than a month later, the first of at least 30 bans on “inappropriate” clothing on beaches — meant to target Muslim attire — was enacted in Cannes, about 20 miles from Nice.

不到一個月后，第一則針對穆斯林服裝的海灘“不當著裝”的禁令在距離尼斯20英里的戛納實行了，這樣的禁令至少有30項。

Although France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, struck down one town’s burkini ban on Friday — and clearly would do the same for other towns if lawsuits were brought — the fight is far from over.

法國的最高行政法院國務(wù)委員會(Council of State)于周五推翻了一座城市的布基尼禁令。顯然，如果其他城市有類似法律訴訟的話，它也會做出同樣判決。但是這場戰(zhàn)爭還遠未結(jié)束。

The parliament could enact a ban, and some of France’s 2017 presidential candidates on the right and far right have pledged to enact measures that run from banning the Muslim veil in universities and businesses to banning almost all religious attire in public.

議會可以施行禁令，有些法國2017年右翼和極右翼的總統(tǒng)候選人也發(fā)誓要頒布一些措施，禁止在大學(xué)和商務(wù)場合戴穆斯林面紗，甚至禁止在公共場合穿著幾乎所有宗教服裝。

As the debate continues, much that is important will be said about France and racism and Islam, but it is worth pondering that it is women’s clothes that are at issue.

隨著爭議繼續(xù)，人們會提出許多關(guān)于法國、種族主義與伊斯蘭的重要觀點，但是，爭議的話題是女性服裝，這一點也值得思考。

Throughout history, a combination of legislation, local regulation and social pressure has influenced the way women have dressed — corsets and décolleté, hoop skirts and bustles, the controversial advent of pants. France is now a society demanding that women undress, but in many ways this debate is part of the same narrative.

縱觀歷史，立法、地方規(guī)定與社會壓力合在一起，影響著女性的穿著方式——緊身胸衣和低胸裝、箍襯裙和襯墊，乃至長褲充滿爭議的登場。如今的法國社會要求女性穿得少些，但在很多方面，這場爭論也是相同敘事的一部分。

In the case of both the bikini and the burkini, “people in positions of power say, ‘We’re putting these rules in place for the woman’s good,'” said Deirdre Clemente, a history professor at the University of Nevada who has studied dress codes for women. “The implication is that women are unable to regulate their appearance themselves.”

比基尼也好，布基尼也好，“掌權(quán)者說，‘我們實行這些規(guī)定都是為女人好，’”研究女性著裝規(guī)則的內(nèi)華達大學(xué)(University of Nevada)歷史學(xué)教授戴爾德麗·克萊門特(Deirdre Clemente)說。“這其中的暗示是，女性不能管理自己的儀表。”

Joan Wallach Scott, a social scientist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, sees France’s approbation of revealing swimwear, as well as the current burkini bans, as products of ideas going back to the French Revolution of 1789.

新澤西州普林斯頓高等研究院(Institute for Advanced Study)的社會學(xué)家瓊·沃勒克·斯科特(Joan Wallach Scott)認為，法國對暴露泳裝的贊同，以及目前對布基尼的禁止，都可以說是1789年法國大革命觀念的產(chǎn)物。

“What you have in French republicanism is a conflict between a commitment to equality and the notion that sexual difference is a natural difference which explains why there can’t be equality between women and men,” she said.

“法國的共和主義包含一種觀念的沖突，一邊是對平等的追求，另一邊是認為兩性差異屬于自然差異、因此男女不可能平等，”她說。

The French believe it is necessary to show the difference between men and women physically even while proclaiming their equality, Scott said.

法國人相信，有必要在彰顯男女平等的同時，展現(xiàn)他們生理上的差異，斯科特說道。

Painter Eugène Delacroix depicted “Liberty” as a bare-breasted woman leading the righteous French. Sculptures and reliefs of a bare-breasted or semi-bare-breasted Marianne, a French symbol of the revolution and liberty, can still be found on government documents, buildings and postal stamps. The very depiction of women reflects how the sexes differ.

畫家歐仁·德拉克洛瓦(Eugène Delacroix)筆下的“自由”是一個裸露乳房的女人，正領(lǐng)導(dǎo)著正義的法國人民前進。法國革命與自由的象征是一個裸胸或半裸胸的女子，名叫瑪麗安(Marianne)，她的雕像和浮雕仍然可以在政府文件、建筑和郵票上看到。這種女性形象的塑造反映了性別的差異。

“Then on the other side you have Muslim society saying that sex and sexual difference is a problem, and women, whether submitting or not, are covered. So in a sense they are exposing the contradiction in French society, and that’s intolerable,” Scott said. “It becomes a commentary on the French need to have women uncovered.”

“在另一邊，你可以看到穆斯林社會說，性與性別差異是一個問題，女人應(yīng)該被遮蓋起來，不管是否順從。因此，在某種意義上，他們暴露了法國社會的一種矛盾，而這是不可容忍的，”斯科特說。“這構(gòu)成了一種評論，對法國人需要女性暴露身體這件事的評論。”

Indeed, the deputy mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, who is a political power broker on the Cote d’Azur, has repeatedly referred to the covering of women on the beach — whether in a burkini or a large T-shirt, pants and hijab — as a “provocation,” suggesting a challenge to the French order.

事實上，尼斯副市長、藍色海岸地區(qū)的政治掮客克里斯蒂安·埃斯特羅西(Christian Estrosi)就一再表示，海灘上女性遮蓋身體是一種“挑釁”——不管是用布基尼還是大T恤，長褲還是穆斯林頭巾——它們暗含著對法國秩序的挑戰(zhàn)。

Such language mystifies one of the burkini’s designers, who sells her pieces in France. Vanessa Lourenco, the designer, said she had started creating them to give Muslim women a chance to participate in the same activities as the rest of the community.

這樣的語言讓一位布基尼設(shè)計者感到困惑，她在法國也出售自己的作品。這位名叫凡妮莎·洛倫索(Vanessa Lourenco)的設(shè)計師說，她設(shè)計布基尼是想給穆斯林女性一個機會，讓她們也能像其他社群成員一樣參與公共場合的活動。

She loves to swim herself, she said, so seeing religious Muslims or other people not go swimming “struck me as unacceptable.”

她說，她本人喜歡游泳，看到虔誠的穆斯林或其他人不能游泳，“讓我覺得無法接受。”

Lourenco, whose internet business sells swimwear in 120 countries, is not Muslim, and people often ask her why she designs for Muslim women.

洛倫索通過互聯(lián)網(wǎng)把泳衣賣到120個國家。她本人不是穆斯林，人們經(jīng)常問她，為什么要為穆斯林女性設(shè)計泳裝。

“My answer is simple: At the end of the day women are women, whether Muslim or not, and we all want to be comfortable, look beautiful and feel feminine,” she said.

“我的回答很簡單：歸根到底，女人就是女人，不管是不是穆斯林，我們都想要穿得舒服、看上去美麗和體驗做女人的感覺，”她說。

“Most of our clients message us saying it is the first time that they were confident enough to be at a public beach enjoying themselves with their family.”

“我們的大部分客戶給我們留言說，這是她們第一次可以放心地來到公共海灘，和家人一起享受快樂時光。”