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失落的青春：当小女孩成为性符号

　　Toddlers in tube tops and naked teen pin-ups no longer seem toshock us. How the sexual image of young girls is beingmanipulated

　　Last Halloween, a five-year-old girl showed up at my doorstepwearing a tube top, miniskirt, platform shoes and eye shadow. Theoutfit projected a rather tawdry sexuality. "I'm a Bratz!" the totpiped up proudly, a look-alike doll clutched in her chubby fist. Ihad a dizzying flashback to an image of a child prostitute I hadseen in Cambodia, in a disturbingly similar outfit。

　　I was startled, but perhaps I should not have been. In recentyears, the sexy little girl has become insistently present in themedia – from 15-year-old Miley Cyrus photographed draped in a sheetfor Vanity Fair to websites "counting down" to the day that childstars, such as Emma Watson, reach the age of consent. And, ofcourse, there was Britney Spears, aged 16, prancing around inschool uniform and pigtails in her first music video. Their allureis that of "Lolita" – very young and very provocative。

　　Lolita has become shorthand for a prematurely sexual girl – onewho, by legal definition, is outlawed from sexual activity. TheLolitas of our time are defined as deliberate sexual provocateurs,luring adults into wickedness and transgressing moral and legalcodes. But the original Lolita – the 12-year-old protagonist ofVladimir Nabokov's novel – was rather different; a powerless victimof her predatory stepfather。

　　Like many pre-adolescent girls, she is sexually curious, but hasno control over the abusive relationship. Yet it is as though thevery fact of her sexuality has made her into a fantasy, rather thanthe novel's sexually abused and tragic figure. She is eagerlyinvoked in the media as a sign of how licentious little girls canbe. "Bring back school uniforms for little Lolitas!" demands theDaily Telegraph in an article condemning contemporary sexyschoolgirl fashions, while Tokyo's Daily Yomiuri refers to "theLolita-like sex appeal" of preteen Japanese anime characters。

　　Increasingly, young girls are seen as valid participants in apublic culture of sex. In some ways, this is not new: in the 1933film Polly Tix in Washington, four-year-old Shirley Temple played apint-sized prostitute. And it's striking that the role of childprostitute was the springboard for the careers of many of our sexgodesses: not just Temple, but also the 14-year-old Jodie Foster inTaxi Driver, 12-year-old Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby, and13-year-old Penelope Cruz in a French soap, Série Rose. All arecommentaries on child sexual exploitation, but the titillatingrepresentations positioned these actors as sex symbols andreinforced the link between girls' sexuality and sex work。

　　Yet in the middle part of the last century, our icons of femalesexuality were Marilyn Monroe, 27, as Lorelei Lee in GentlemenPrefer Blondes or Sophia Loren, 23, in Desire Under the Elms.Legally and physically adults, their much-admired bodies would notmeet today's standards of sculpted muscularity and narrow-hippedleanness. The British model Twiggy is often cited for introducingthe boyish, adolescent body type as a western feminine ideal. Shewas 16 when she started modelling in 1966 and by the late 80s theslender adolescent body had come to epitomise female beauty。

　　"A girl at the edge of puberty has a naturally hairless bodythat demands no shaving, waxing or chemicals . . . Her body isnaturally small, supple and nothing if not youthful," observessociologist Wendy Chapkis. The western ideal of female beauty, shewrites, is defined by "eternal youth"。

　　This emphasis on youthfulness has led to the use of very younggirls as models in fashion and advertising, often in sexuallysuggestive contexts. Most catwalk models are between 14 and 19 –some, such as Maddison Gabriel, the official face of Australia'sGold Coast fashion week in 2007, are just 12.

　　Young girls are increasingly posed as sexual objects of theadult gaze, while numerous clothing ads feature women dressed aslittle girls, sucking on lollipops, kneeling, crouching or lying inpositions of subordination. Witness the 20-year-old model LilyCole, ribbons in her hair, clasping a teddy bear for FrenchPlayboy. Childishness is sexy, these messages seem to say. Ergo,children – especially little girls – are sexy。

　　The highly sexual poses imply they are "Lolitas" –knowledgeable, wanton, seductive. It sends a message that littlegirls should be viewed as sexy. The idea is that female sexualityis the province of youth. Writing in the New York Times, children'smagazine editor Pilar Guzman observes, "The gap is diminishingbetween what's meant for children and what's intended for theirelders."

　　It's called "kids getting older younger" – a marketing constructblurring the line between adults and children, especially withregard to sexuality. The problem is not with children, but withthose who knowingly sell products with powerful sexual overtones toyoung girls, and with adults who then interpret girls' bodies assexually available。

　　If these little girls can't feel sexual desire or understandmuch about it, why are we so obsessed with fetishising them? Apossible answer is a backlash against feminism. Society has beenforced to confront women as contenders in the social arena. Thishas generated resentment from men, as in Michael Noer's infamous2006 column in Forbes, "Don't marry a career woman," in which heclaimed that working women are more likely to cheat on theirhusbands. Little girls epitomise a patriarchal society's ideal ofcompliant, docile sexuality. In the media, girls are reduced toone-dimensional, wholly limited figurines。

　　But the motivation is also commercial. Cosmetics and fashiondesigners are finding ways to capture loyal consumers almost fromday one. On the flip side, emphasising girlishness as desirablefacilitates the multibillion-dollar sales of anti-aging cosmetics,creams and plastic surgery. Finally, there's the undergroundeconomy of little girls' sexuality: child sex trafficking andprostitution. According to the UN, sex trafficking is thefastest-growing area of organised crime。

　　I want my two young daughters – indeed, all girls – to grow upconfident about finding and expressing sexual pleasure. But as aculture, we have few ways to represent or acknowledge children'ssexuality, and we seem incapable of dealing with it outside therealm of sexual commodification and commerce. Sexual curiosity andeven some experimentation are ordinary features of childhood.Realistic, strong, and non-exploitative representations of girls'sexuality would be a progressive social step, but images of girlsposed and styled as objects of the erotic adult gaze can't be. Theyoften employ the conventions of sex work, legitimising the use ofyoung girls for prostitution and pornography。

　　I wish that Halloween costumes for little girls involving vinylboots or corsets were just silly and fun. They may be, in contextswhere girls are totally protected, safe from any misreading orviolation. But I am not convinced such contexts exist. Instead wemust create safe and supportive spaces for girls to understandtheir sexuality on their own terms and in their own time。

　　当越来越多的小小女孩被打扮得妖娆妩媚地出现在媒体上时，这是否体现了父权社会对女性提出的顺从而且性温顺的理想标准？在雏妓仍广泛存在的今天，这种现象实在值得深思反省。

　　去年万圣节前夕，一个5岁大的小女孩出现在我家门口，她身上穿着一件直筒式抹胸(tubetop)，配了一条超短裙，脚上穿着松糕鞋，脸上打着眼影。全身装扮透射出一种相当俗艳的性感。“我是布拉茨娃娃(Bratz)！”小女孩自豪地尖声说到，胖乎乎的小手紧握着一只面貌酷似她的娃娃。我突然感到一阵晕眩，脑中闪现出我曾在柬埔寨看到过的一名雏妓的影像，也是类似的打扮，令人颇感不安。

　　我当时很吃惊，但也许我不应该如此。近年来，性感的小女孩已成为媒体经常呈现给大众的形象：从15岁的麦莉·赛勒斯(MileyCyrus)身披布毯为《名利场》杂志拍摄的照片，到“倒计时”(counting down)之类电影娱乐网站对艾玛·沃特森(EmmaWatson)等童星达到默许年龄进行倒计时记录。当然，还有布兰妮·斯皮尔斯(BritneySpears)，16岁时的她留着长辫子，穿着校服，欢蹦乱跳地出现在她的首个音乐录像中。他们的魅力是那种“洛丽塔”(Lolita)式的——非常年轻、非常撩人。

　　洛丽塔已成为过早性成熟女孩的代名词——她们的性活动按法律定义是非法的。我们这个时代的洛丽塔被定义为引诱成年人沦于邪恶并逾越道德及法律准则的故意性挑衅者。但原先弗拉基米尔·纳博科夫(VladimirNabokov)小说中那个12岁的主角洛丽塔是完全不同的，她不过是她贪婪的继父手中柔弱无力的受害者。

　　像许多青春期前的女孩一样，洛丽塔有性好奇，但对那种性虐待关系无能为力。然而，就好象她本身的性欲令她自己陷入了一种幻境之中，而不是小说中所描述的她——一个遭到性虐待的悲剧人物。媒体热衷于将她援引为一个放荡无忌的小女孩。“恢复小女孩的校服！”《每日电讯报》在一篇谴责现代女学生性感时装的文章中疾呼；而东京《读卖新闻》将日本动漫青春期前孩童人物称为“洛丽塔式的性感”。

　　越来越多的年轻女孩被视为性公共文化的有效参与者。从某种意义上说，这并不新鲜：在1933年的电影《波莉·提克斯在华盛顿》(Polly Tix in Washington)里，四岁的秀兰·邓波儿(ShirleyTemple)扮演一名小雏妓。而引人瞩目的是，雏妓角色成为我们许多性感女神许多职业的跳板：不只是邓波儿，还有电影《出租车司机》中14岁的朱迪·福斯特(Jodie Foster)、电影《漂亮宝贝》中12岁的波姬·小丝(BrookeShields)以及法国肥皂剧《玫瑰系列》(Série Rose)中13岁的佩内洛普·克鲁兹(PenelopeCruz)。所有这些影视作品都是有关儿童性剥削的评论，但表现出来的性挑逗将这些小女孩演员定位成性的象征，强化了女孩性感与性作品之间的联系。

　　然而，在上世纪中叶的时候，我们时代女性性感的标志性人物是在电影《绅士爱美人》(Gentlemen PreferBlondes)中扮演罗蕾莱·李(Lorelei Lee)时27岁的玛丽莲·梦露(MarilynMonroe)，或者是在电影《榆树下的欲望》中23岁的索菲亚·罗兰(SophiaLoren)。她们在法律上及身体上都已属成年，而她们当时备受赞美的身材已不符合今天所要求的肌肉发达得如雕刻般线条明晰及窄臀骨感的标准。英国模特崔姬(Twiggy)常被引证为开创了以男孩般、青春期男孩体型为西方女性理想体型的风潮。她在1966年16岁时开始了模特生涯。至80年代后期，青春期男孩般纤细的身材成为女性美的象征。

　　社会学家温迪·查普基斯(WendyChapkis)指出：“一个处于青春期边缘的女孩自然没有多少体毛，无需刮毛、上蜡或其他化学品。。。她的身体自然娇小柔软，完全是青春焕发。”她写道，西方的理想女性美被定义为“永葆青春”。

　　这种注重青春的审美观导致时装与广告中采用非常年轻的女孩作为模特，而且往往在性暗示的背景中。许多T型舞台的时装模型大多14岁至19岁——有些如2007年澳大利亚黄金海岸时装周年度之星的麦迪逊·加布里埃尔(MaddisonGabriel)甚至只有12岁。

　　年轻的女孩越来越多地充作成年人目光中的性对象，而在众多的服装广告中，大多是打扮得像小女孩似的女性，吮着棒棒糖，时而跪着、时而半蹲、时而躺下，都是些从属的姿势。比如，20岁的模特莉丽·科尔(LilyCole)在为《法国花花公子》杂志拍摄照片时，头上束着丝带，手里紧握着一个玩具熊。这些讯息似乎在表明：孩子气即性感。因此，孩童——尤其是小女孩——就是性感。

　　高度性暗示的姿势意味着她们是“洛丽塔”——有知识、淫荡、诱人。这些发出了一个讯息——小女孩应被视为性感。这个想法是，女性性感是青春的领地。儿童杂志编辑皮拉尔·古斯曼(PilarGuzman)在《纽约时报》发表的文章中指出：“儿童和年长者应有的特征之间的差距正在日益消失。”

　　这种现象被称为“年纪轻轻就成熟”(kids getting olderyounger)——一种模糊成年人与小孩界限的营销构建，尤其是在性感方面。问题不在于孩子，而是在于那些故意将具有强烈性色彩的产品推销给年轻女孩的人，以及那些因此将女孩的肉体理解为可以性行为的对象。

　　如果这些小女孩感觉不到性欲，或者对性不甚了解的话，我们为什么要如此痴迷地将她们视为性恋对象呢？一个可能的答案是对女权主义的逆反作用。社会已被迫在社会领域面临女性竞争者。这就引起了男性的不满，正如在麦克尔·诺尔(MichaelNoer)臭名昭著的2006年福布斯栏目文章中所说的：“千万不要娶职业女性”，他在文中声称，职业女性更容易欺骗自己的丈夫。小女孩体现了父权社会对女性提出的顺从而且性温顺的理想标准。在媒体上，女孩被缩略成一维的而且完全有限的雕像。

　　但这些动机也是出于商业目的。化妆品和时装设计师正在想方设法从几乎一开始就俘获忠实的消费者。在另一面，强调崇尚女孩特征有利于抗衰老化妆品、护肤霜及整形手术等价值数十亿美元的销售。最后，还有小女孩性交易的地下经济：儿童色情贩卖及卖淫。根据联合国的统计，色情贩卖是有组织犯罪中增长最快的一种犯罪行为。

　　我希望我的两个小女儿——事实上，所有的女孩——能在成长过程中自信地寻找及表达性快感。但是作为一种文化，我们没有什么方法可以来表现或承认儿童的性行为，在性商品化及性贸易领域之外，我们似乎对它无处下手。性好奇，甚至一些性实验是普通孩童时期的特征。对女孩性感的现实、强烈、及非剥削性的描述是一个进步社会前进的一步，但是，摆姿势并打扮成成年人目光中的色情对象就不是这样了。他们经常采用性工作公约，对在卖淫和色情娱乐业中雇用年轻女孩的行为进行合法化。

　　我希望包括由乙烯基制成的长筒靴或着紧身胸衣在内的小女孩万圣节服饰纯粹属于愚蠢和开玩笑的。在受到完全保护之下，她们或许可免受任何误解或侵犯。但对于这种情况的存在，我并不能确信。相反，我们必须为女孩创造安全而且具有鼓励性的空间，让她们能够按照自己的方式及自己的时间进程，了解自己的性欲。