每日英语:为何美人有“美”报

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每日英语:为何美人有“美”报 Why beautiful people will be handsomely rewarded
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10 月31 日
为何美人有“美”报 Why beautiful people will be handsomely rewarded


鉴于美国时尚的传播速度，我们不久都应能收到整形手术“亮相”会的请帖。
Given the speed with which American fashions travel, we should all soon be receiving invitations to plastic surgery \"coming out\" parties.

优秀表现公司(Great Performances)的董事总经理罗尼•戴维斯(Ronnie Davis)上周对《纽约时报》(The New York Times)的记者说，他已在纽约、洛杉矶、达拉斯和密歇(地点未对外公布)组织了整形术后晚会。Great Performance是一家聚会策划公司，总部位于美国曼哈顿。
Ronnie Davis, managing director of Great Performances, a Manhattan-based party planning company, told The New York Times last week that he had organised post-operative plastic surgery parties in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and an undisclosed location in Michigan.

据《纽约时报》报道，300人聚集在长岛，观看了10名年龄从16到60多岁不等的女人在T形台上的表演，她们向公众展示了自己整形后的面容和身体部位。美国整形外科学会(American Society of Plastic Surgeons)会长詹姆士•韦尔斯(James Wells)说：“过去，我们常常会让整容者从后门进来，而且他们还用假名，”而现在，“人们希望告诉朋友自己整过容”。
The newspaper reported that in Long Island 300 people turned up to watch 10 women, aged from 16 to 60-plus, walk down a catwalk, showing off their new faces and body parts. \"We used to sneak people in the back door with fake names,\" James Wells, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said. Now, \"they want to announce it to their friends\".

如果你从未咨询过整容医生，也没有参加过“亮相”，那你也许亏待了自己。学术研究已证实，美貌是成功的关键。
Those of us who have never consulted a plastic surgeon, much less attended a coming out party, are probably doing ourselves a disservice. Academic studies have established that good looks are the key to success.

英国保守党领袖伊恩•邓肯•史密斯(Iain Duncan Smith)极想保住自己的位子。评论员说，他的缺点之一就是秃顶。目前人们广泛认为，只有长满头发的人才能成为美国总统或英国首相。这或许可以解释，为什么在竞选总统或首相时，我的名字从未被提起过。
Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative party leader, is desperately clinging to his job. One of his defects, according to commentators, is that he is bald. It is now widely held that only someone with a full head of hair can become US president or British prime minister, which is possibly why, when these jobs fall vacant, my name is never mentioned.

法国总是与众不同。雅克•希拉克(Jacques Chirac) 和弗郎索瓦•密特朗(Fran鏾is Mitterrand)两位总统都是头发稀疏。十年前，德州大学(University of Texas)的丹尼尔•汉默麦希(Daniel Hamermesh)和密歇根州立大学(Michigan State University)的杰夫•毕德尔(Jeff Biddle)指出，不同文化对美会产生非常不同的看法。*
France, as ever, is different. Jacques Chirac is thin on top, as was Fran鏾is Mitterrand. A decade ago, Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas and Jeff Biddle of Michigan State University noted that notions of beauty differed widely between cultures.*

两位作者在文章中写到：“在非洲乌班吉(Ubangi)男人看来，厚实的下唇很有吸引力；而中国满清时代(Manchu)的男人视女人裹足为美。”同一文化对美的评判标准也在变化。“瘦削身材是今天西方男性的理想身材。但在19世纪的美国，他们却被看作可能患有肺结核或就是肺结核病患者，因此在婚姻和劳动市场都很难如意。”
\"Hugely distended lower lips are considered attractive by Ubangi men; women\'s bound feet by Manchu dynasty men,\" the writers said. Standards of beauty also changed within cultures. \"Today\'s ideal lean western male would have been viewed as potentially or actually consumptive and a bad match in both marriage and labour markets in 19th-century America.\"

但在任何时候，他们写道，在同样的文化背景下，人们对于美丽都有着普遍一致的观点。当研究人员要求受访者对人们的外貌进行打分时，他们发现了高度的一致性。尽管对美丽的认识发生着变化，但这种变化非常缓慢。
However, at any time, they wrote, there was widespread agreement on beauty within cultures. When researchers asked respondents to rank the appearance of people, they found a high degree of consensus. While perceptions of what was beautiful changed, they did so slowly.

两位作者考察了三个劳动力市场研究结果，其中两个在美国，一个在加拿大。他们要求采访员不但询问受访者的职位情况，同时还对受访者的长相进行评价，评价标准从“难看”到“非常好看”分为五级。所有数据收集到一起后，作者发现，人们的长相极大地影响了他们的收入。“相貌丑陋的人挣钱少于相貌一般的人，而相貌一般的收入又少于长得好看的人。”
The writers examined three labour market surveys, two US and one Canadian. The interviewers were told not only to ask respondents about their jobs but also to rate their looks on a five-point scale, ranging from \"homely\" to \"strikingly handsome\". Putting the data together, the writers found that people\'s looks substantially affected what they earned. \"lain people earn less than people of average looks, who earn less than the good-looking.\"

那么，你认为谁的长相在工作环境中更重要呢？男人的还是女人的？你说女人？错了，男人的长相更重要。1993年的研究发现，同样因长相不佳而受到影响，男人受到的影响比女人更大；反之亦然，同样因脸孔俊俏而受益，男人比女人受益更多。长相低于平均水准的男人，其收入比一般人要少10%，长得帅的男人则多挣5%。而对女人而言，长相不佳导致的收入损失仅为5%，漂亮面孔对收入的正面影响仅为4%。
Now, whose looks do you think mattered more in the workplace: men\'s or women\'s? Wrong. Men\'s. The 1993 research found that the penalty for being plain was bigger for men than for women - and so was the premium for being good-looking. Men with below average looks were paid 10 per cent less; the handsome earned a premium of 5 per cent. For women, the penalty for bad looks was only 5 per cent; the premium for good looks was 4 per cent.

这些研究结果的问题在于：它和我们在电视和杂志封面上看到的情况不一样。如果不带过多个人主观因素去评判的话，有许多成功男人，并不属于“帅呆了的”那一类。比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)的好朋友们会认为他是个美男子吗？沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)的好朋友们又会怎么认为呢？
The problem with these findings is that they are at variance with what we see on our television screens and magazine covers. There are plenty of successful men who, without being too personal about it, are not in the \"strikingly handsome\" category. Would Bill Gates\'s best friends describe him as a beauty? Would Warren Buffett\'s?

你或许会说，反正这两个人都是自己白手起家创立了公司，也就无所谓长得怎么样了。这话有道理，但还有其他一些人，没有相貌较好者的优势，但照样在历史悠久的大公司里脱颖而出，升入公司高层。
You may say that as these two founded their organisations, they could look as they wished. That is true, but there are men who have scrambled to the top of long-established companies without the advantages of some of their better-looking peers.

杰克•韦尔奇(Jack Welch)在自传中谈及他第一次离婚后的生活时说：“单身而且有钱，就像是身高六英尺四而且头发浓密，”言下之意就是承认，金钱弥补了他的秃顶和个子矮。但是，这两个缺点并未阻碍他成为企业领袖（也未阻碍漂亮女士对他的逢迎）。
In his autobiography, Jack Welch talks of life after his first divorce. \"Being single and having money was like standing six feet four with a full head of hair,\" he says, implicitly acknowledging that money compensated for the absence of the other two characteristics. But that did not stop him getting to the top (or being fawned over by attractive women).

另外，来看看《财富》(Fortune)杂志近期关于全球最有影响力的50位商界女性的封面文章。虽然这些女士相貌不同，但几乎都打扮得当，穿着考究。上述10年前的研究也许显示了，相对男性来说，女性受不漂亮的影响要少，但这50位女士显然不相信这点。
Look, on the other hand, at Fortune magazine\'s recent cover story on the world\'s 50 most powerful businesswomen. While they vary in looks, the women are almost all well-groomed and well-dressed. The research may show that women suffer less than men for not looking good; these women clearly do not believe it.

那么谁对呢？全球最成功的50位商界女性，还是10年前的研究？可能两者都对。在更近期的一篇论文中，埃默里大学(Emory University)的佩吉•李(Peggy Lee)和弗吉尼亚大学(University of Virginia)的埃丽卡•海斯•詹姆斯(Erika Hayes James)考察了高层管理人员的任命对公司股价所产生的影响。她们发现，相对任命男性首席执行官来说，市场对任命女性首席执行官的反应显然要消极得多。**
So who is right? The world\'s 50 most successful businesswomen or the 10-year old research? Possibly both. In a more recent paper, Peggy Lee of Emory University and Erika Hayes James of the University of Virginia examined the effect of executive appointments on share prices. They found the market responded significantly more negatively to the appointment of female chief executives than to male ones.**

然而，对首席执行官级别之下的管理人员是男是女，市场则不太在意。市场对首席运营官之类职位的任命，无论对象是男是女，都平等看待。
Below chief executive level, however, the market was less bothered. It treated appointments to positions such as chief operating officer equally, regardless of whether the new holder was male or female.

“基本上，只要没有高到首席执行官的职位，市场对于其他高层领导职位的性别问题并不在意，这表明阻碍女性进入公司高层的歧视性限制已经放宽，虽然尚未完全消除，”两位作者在论文中写道。她们提出，由于女性被任命为首席执行官已不再是新奇事，市场对她们的审视或许也会减少。当公司内部的女性被提升为首席执行官时，市场反应已不象以前那么消极。
\"Essentially, the market does not differentiate between men and women in senior leadership roles until one reaches the CEO position, suggesting the glass ceiling has been raised, albeit not entirely eliminated,\" the writers say. They suggest that as the appointment of women chief executives becomes less of a novelty, they may be subjected to less scrutiny. The market already reacts less negatively to women promoted to chief executive from within their organisations.

把上述两份研究报告放到一起，我们可以得出结论：虽然在组织架构的较低层次上，女性相貌如何也许不太重要，但那些身在高层的女性，仍然必须比男性更努力。当女性首席执行官们不用精心打扮就能出场的时候，那才是真正的进步。
Putting the two pieces of research together, we can conclude that while it may matter less what women look like lower down in the organisation, those at the top still have to try harder. Real progress will be when female chief executives can walk around looking like scruffs.

*《美貌与职场》www.nber.org/papers/w4518.pdf
*Beauty and the Labour Market. www.nber.org/papers/w4518.pdf

**《性别效应和股价反应》
**She\'-e-os: Gender Effects and Stock Price Reactions. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstractid=427083