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1 For the Greeks, beauty was a virtue: a kind of excellence. Persons then were assumed to be what we now have to call—lamely, enviously—whole persons'. If it did occur to the Greeks to distinguish between a person's "inside" and "outside", they still expected that inner beauty would be matched by beauty of the other kind. The well-born young Athenians who gathered around Socrates found it quite paradoxical that their hero was so intelligent, so brave, so honorable, so seductive—and so ugly. One of Socrates' main pedagogical acts was to be ugly and teach those innocent, no doubt splendid-looking disciples of his how full of paradoxes life really was.
1 在古希腊人眼中，美是一种德行，一种卓越的品质。那时的人们被认为是“完人”，而如今我们只能无力而艳羡地这么称呼他们。即使古希腊人也曾区分过一个人的“内在”和“外在”，但他们仍然认为内在美和外在美应是相得益彰的。那些聚集在苏格拉底周围出身高贵的雅典年轻人，觉得他们的英雄如此智慧、勇敢、高尚、迷人却又如此丑陋，这真是自相矛盾。苏格拉底主要的教育行为之一，就是以丑陋的形象教导他那些天真无邪、想必也相貌堂堂的门徒们，人生充满了悖论。
2 They may have resisted Socrates' lesson. We do not. Several thousand years later, we are more wary of the enchantments of beauty. We not only split off—with the greatest facility—the "inside" (character, intellect) from the "outside" (looks)'; but we are actually surprised when someone who is beautiful is also intelligent, talented, good.
2 或许他们当年并不认同苏格拉底的教诲，而我们则不然。几千年后的今天，我们对美的魅力更加警惕。我们不仅轻而易举地将“内在”（品格、才智）与“外在”（容貌）分离，而且当一个美丽的人同时又聪明、有才华、善良时，我们甚至会感到惊讶。
3 It was principally the influence of Christianity that deprived beauty of the central place it had in classical ideals of human excellence. By limiting excellence (virtus in Latin) to moral virtue only, Christianity set beauty adrift—as an alienated, arbitrary, superficial enchantment. And beauty has continued to lose prestige. For close to two centuries it has become a convention to attribute beauty to only one of the two sexes: the sex which, however Fair, is always Second. Associating beauty with women has put beauty even further on the defensive, morally.
3 主要是基督教的影响，剥夺了美在古典人本卓越理想中的核心地位。通过将卓越（拉丁语为 virtus）局限于道德美德，基督教让美变得疏离、随性和肤浅，美也因此逐渐失去了声望。近两个世纪以来，将美仅仅归于两性之一，即无论如何“美”，却总是“第二”的那个性别，已成为一种惯例。将美与女性联系在一起，使得美在道德层面上更加被动。
4 A beautiful woman, we say in English. But a handsome man. "Handsome" is the masculine equivalent of—and refusal of—a compliment which has accumulated certain demeaning overtones, by being reserved for women only. That one can call a man "beautiful" in French and in Italian suggests that Catholic countries—unlike those countries shaped by the Protestant version of Christianity—still retain some vestiges of the pagan admiration for beauty. But the difference, if one exists, is of degree only. In every modern country that is Christian or post-Christian, women are the beautiful sex—to the detriment of the notion of beauty as well as of women.
4 在英语中，我们说“美丽的女人”，却说“英俊的男人”。“英俊”是男性对等的赞美，但也是对女性专属赞美的拒绝，这种赞美因其仅限于女性而积累了某种贬低的意味。在法语和意大利语中，人们可以用“美丽”来形容男人，这表明信奉天主教的国家与那些深受基督教新教版本影响的国家不同，仍然保留了一些异教徒对美的崇拜痕迹。但这种差异如果存在的话，也只是程度上的不同。在每一个基督教或后基督教的现代国家，女性都是美丽的性别——这对美的概念和女性本身都是一种损害。
5 To be called beautiful is thought to name something essential to women's character and concerns. (In contrast to men—whose essence is to be strong, or effective, or competent) It does not take someone in the throes of advanced feminist awareness to perceive that the way women are taught to be involved with beauty encourages narcissism, reinforces dependence and immaturity. Everybody (women and men) knows that. For it is "everybody", a whole society, that has identified being feminine with caring about how one looks. (In contrast to being masculine —which is identified with caring about what one is and does and only secondarily, if at all, about how one looks.) Given these stereotypes, it is no wonder that beauty enjoys, at best, a rather mixed reputation.
5 被称为“美丽”被认为是女性性格和关注点的本质特征。（与之相对，男性的本质则被认为是强壮、有能力或胜任工作。）即使不是一个具有高度女权主义意识的人，也能察觉到女性被教导的与美的关联方式，实际上是在助长自恋，强化依赖性和不成熟。每个人（无论男女）都明白这一点。因为正是“每个人”，也就是整个社会，将女性气质等同于在意外表。（与之相对，男性气质则被认为与一个人的内在和行为有关，而外表只是次要的，甚至根本不重要。）鉴于这些刻板印象，也难怪美即使有声誉，也是毁誉参半。
6 It is not, of course, the desire to be beautiful that is wrong but the obligation to be— or to try. What is accepted by most women as a flattering idealization of their sex is a way of making women feel inferior to what they actually are—or normally grow to be. For the ideal of beauty is administered as a form of self-oppression. Women are taught to see their bodies in parts, and to evaluate each part separately. Breasts, feet, hips, waistline, neck, eyes, nose, complexion, hair, and so on—each in turn is submitted to an anxious, fretful, often despairing scrutiny. Even if some pass muster, some will always be found wanting. Nothing less than perfection will do.
6 当然，渴望美丽并没有错，错的是将美丽视为一种义务或必须去追求的目标。大多数女性将美丽视为对自身性别的赞美，而这实际上却让女性感到自卑，无法成为她们本来的样子，或者说无法正常地成长。因为美的理想被当作一种自我压迫的形式来推行。女性被教导要将自己的身体分成各个部分，并分别对每个部分进行评估。乳房、脚、臀部、腰围、脖子、眼睛、鼻子、肤色、头发等等，都要逐一接受焦虑、烦躁、甚至绝望的审视。即使某些部分勉强过关，总会有一些被认为不尽如人意。只有完美才算合格。
7 In men, good looks is a whole, something taken in at a glance. It does not need to be confirmed by giving measurements of different regions of the body, nobody encourages a man to dissect his appearance, feature by feature. As for perfection, that is considered trivial—almost unmanly. Indeed, in the ideally good-looking man a small imperfection or blemish is considered positively desirable. According to one movie critic (a woman) who is a declared Robert Redford fan, it is having that cluster of skin-colored moles on one cheek that saves Redford from being merely a "pretty face". Think of the depreciation of women—as well as of beauty—that is implied in that judgment.
7 对于男性来说，帅气是一个整体，只消一眼就能被感知。它不需要通过测量身体不同部位的尺寸来确认，也没有人鼓励男人逐个剖析自己的容貌特征。至于完美，那被认为是微不足道的，甚至缺乏男子气概。事实上，在一个理想的帅哥身上，一个小小的瑕疵或缺陷反而被认为是加分项。一位影评人（女性）自称是罗伯特·雷德福的影迷，她说正是雷德福一侧脸颊上那簇肤色的痣，才使他不仅仅拥有一张“漂亮脸蛋”。想想这句话中对女性以及对美的贬低吧。
8 "The privileges of beauty are immense," said Cocteau. To be sure, beauty is a form of power. And deservedly so. What is lamentable is that it is the only form of power that most women are encouraged to seek. This power is always conceived in relation to men; it is not the power to do but the power to attract. It is a power that negates itself. For this power is not one that can be chosen freely—at least, not by women—or renounced without social censure.
8 “美的特权是巨大的，”科克托如是说。诚然，美是一种力量，而且理应如此。可悲的是，这是大多数女性被鼓励去寻求的唯一力量。这种力量总是与男性联系在一起；它不是做事的能力，而是吸引人的能力。这是一种自我否定的力量。因为这种力量并非可以自由选择的——至少对女性来说是这样——也不能在不受社会谴责的情况下放弃。
9 To preen, for a woman, can never be just a pleasure. It is also a duty. It is her work. If a woman does real work —and even if she has clambered up to a leading position in politics, law, medicine, business, or whatever—she is always under pressure to confess that she still works at being attractive. But in so far as she is keeping up as one of the Fair Sex, she brings under suspicion her very capacity to be objective, professional, authoritative, thoughtful. Damned if they do—women are. And damned if they don't.
9 对女性来说，梳妆打扮从来不仅仅是一种乐趣，更是一种责任，是她的工作。如果一个女人真的在工作——即使她已经攀升到政治、法律、医学、商业或其他任何领域的领导职位——她总是迫于压力而不得不承认自己仍然致力于保持迷人的外表。但是，当她努力保持自己作为“美”的性别一员时，她的客观性、专业性、权威性和思考能力就会受到质疑。女人真是做也该死，不做也该死。
10 One could hardly ask for more important evidence of the dangers of considering persons as split between what is "inside" and what is "outside" than that interminable half-comic half-tragic tale, the oppression of women. How easy it is to start off by defining women as caretakers of their surfaces, and then to disparage them (or find them adorable) for being "superficial". It is a crude trap, and it has worked for too long. But to get out of the trap requires that women get some critical distance from that excellence and privilege which is beauty, enough distance to see how much beauty itself has been abridged in order to prop up the mythology of the "feminine". There should be a way of saving beauty from women—and for them.
10 将人割裂为“内在”和“外在”的危险性，再没有比女性所受的压迫这个半滑稽半悲惨的故事更重要的证据了。先将女性定义为外表的守护者，然后贬低她们（或觉得她们可爱）“肤浅”，这是多么轻而易举。这是一个粗陋的陷阱，却奏效了太久。但是要摆脱这个陷阱，女性需要与美丽这种卓越和特权保持一定的批判距离，足够的距离才能看清美本身在多大程度上被贬低，以支撑“女性气质”的神话。应该有一种方法将美从女性手中拯救出来，也是为了女性自身。
Summary
English Summary:
The article explores the societal perception of beauty, particularly in relation to women. It argues that the concept of beauty has been devalued and distorted over time, especially through the influence of Christianity and the association of beauty primarily with women. This association has led to beauty being viewed as a superficial and obligatory trait for women, reinforcing dependence and hindering their ability to be seen as competent and authoritative. The article criticizes the societal pressure on women to conform to an idealized standard of beauty, which is often unattainable and leads to self-oppression. It concludes by advocating for a reevaluation of beauty, separating it from the restrictive and damaging stereotypes associated with femininity.
中文概括:
这篇文章探讨了社会对美的看法，特别是与女性相关的看法。文章认为，美的概念随着时间的推移已经被贬低和扭曲，尤其是受到基督教的影响以及美主要与女性的联系。这种联系导致美被视为女性肤浅和强制性的特征，强化了依赖性并阻碍了她们被视为有能力和权威的能力。文章批评了社会对女性施加的压力，要求她们符合理想化的美标准，这种标准通常是无法实现的，并导致自我压迫。文章最后主张重新评估美，将其与女性气质的限制性和破坏性刻板印象分开。
Analysis
原文： For the Greeks, beauty was a virtue: a kind of excellence. Persons then were assumed to be what we now have to call—lamely, enviously—‘whole persons'. If it did occur to the Greeks to distinguish between a person's "inside" and "outside", they still expected that inner beauty would be matched by beauty of the other kind.
解析： 这句话首先阐述了古希腊人对美的看法：一种美德，一种卓越。然后对比了古希腊和现代对“完整的人”的不同理解。“lamely, enviously” 插入语，表达了现代人对古希腊人那种“完整”的无奈和羡慕。“whole persons” 指的是内在美和外在美统一的人。最后，即使古希腊人区分人的“内在”和“外在”，他们仍然期望内在美与外在美相匹配。这句话的难点在于理解“whole persons”的概念，以及插入语“lamely, enviously”所表达的微妙情感。它暗示了现代人将人的内在和外在割裂开来，已经无法像古希腊人那样自然地将两者统一起来，因此只能“无奈”和“羡慕”地称古希腊人为“完整的人”。
原文： It was principally the influence of Christianity that deprived beauty of the central place it had in classical ideals of human excellence.
解析： 这句话使用了倒装结构，正常语序是 "The influence of Christianity principally deprived beauty of the central place...". "deprived...of..." 意思是“剥夺...的...”。"classical ideals of human excellence" 指的是“古典时期（主要指古希腊和古罗马时期）关于人类卓越的理想”。这句话的难点在于理解基督教对美的态度的转变：在古典时期，美是人类卓越的重要组成部分，但基督教的兴起，使美失去了其核心地位。基督教强调道德美，而相对贬低了外在美。
原文： By limiting excellence (virtus in Latin) to moral virtue only, Christianity set beauty adrift—as an alienated, arbitrary, superficial enchantment.
解析： 这句话解释了基督教如何使美失去了其核心地位。“By limiting excellence (virtus in Latin) to moral virtue only” 指出基督教将“卓越”（拉丁语为 virtus）局限于道德美德。“set beauty adrift” 是一个比喻，意思是“使美漂泊不定”，形象地说明了美在基督教价值观中的边缘化。“alienated, arbitrary, superficial enchantment” 进一步描述了美被贬低的地位：被疏离的、随意的、肤浅的诱惑。这句话的难点在于理解“set beauty adrift”的比喻义，以及后面一系列形容词对美的负面描述。
原文： That one can call a man "beautiful" in French and in Italian suggests that Catholic countries—unlike those countries shaped by the Protestant version of Christianity—still retain some vestiges of the pagan admiration for beauty.
解析： 这句话比较了天主教国家和新教国家对美的不同态度。“That one can call a man "beautiful" in French and in Italian” 是一个主语从句，作句子的主语。“suggests” 是谓语。“Catholic countries” 和 “those countries shaped by the Protestant version of Christianity” 进行了对比。“vestiges” 意思是“残余，遗迹”。“pagan admiration for beauty” 指的是“异教徒对美的崇拜”，这里指古希腊罗马时期对美的崇拜。这句话的难点在于理解天主教和新教对美的不同态度，以及“pagan admiration for beauty” 的含义。它暗示了天主教国家比新教国家更多地保留了古典时期对美的欣赏。
原文： It does not take someone in the throes of advanced feminist awareness to perceive that the way women are taught to be involved with beauty encourages narcissism, reinforces dependence and immaturity.
解析： 这句话使用了 “It does not take + 名词/名词短语 + to do sth.” 的结构，意思是“做某事不需要...”。“in the throes of” 意思是“处于...的剧痛中”，这里引申为“深受...的影响”。“advanced feminist awareness” 意思是“先进的女权主义意识”。“perceive” 意思是“意识到”。这句话的难点在于理解 “in the throes of advanced feminist awareness” 的引申义，以及整个句子的反讽意味。它指出，即使不是一个具有先进女权主义意识的人，也能意识到女性被教育要注重美貌的方式助长了自恋、依赖和不成熟。
原文： For the ideal of beauty is administered as a form of self-oppression.
解析： 这句话将“美的理想”比作“一种自我压迫的形式”。“administered” 通常指“管理、执行”，这里引申为“施加”。这句话的难点在于理解这个比喻的含义。它指出，社会强加给女性的“美的理想”实际上是一种压迫，迫使女性不断审视和评判自己的外貌，从而造成精神上的压力和焦虑。这种“美的理想”不是让女性感到自由和快乐，而是让她们感到自卑和不足，因此是一种“自我压迫”。