雙語達人:女性爲何也會酗酒(1)

A few summers ago, I stuffed my car full of the last flattened cardboard boxes from a cross-country move and headed to the recycling depot of my suburban New Jersey town. I pulled up behind a queue of slender women at the wheels of shiny SUVs. Their eyes concealed by giant sunglasses, they hopped from their seats to their open trunks and, one by one, reached for the bags that are the totems of upper-middle-class life: silver ones from Nordstrom, plain ones from Whole Foods. Out poured wine bottles, clanking into the rusted recycling truck.

幾年前的一個夏天，我把長途搬家後剩下的最後一批壓平的硬紙板箱塞滿我的車，然後前往我所在的新澤西州郊區小鎮上的回收站。我停在一隊耀眼的SUV車後方，開車的是一羣身材苗條的女士。她們的眼睛隱藏在碩大的太陽鏡下，她們從座位上下來，打開後車廂，一個接一個去拿象徵中產階級上層生活圖騰的那些袋子：Nordstrom的銀色袋子，全食超市(Whole Foods)的普通袋子。葡萄酒瓶從這些袋子裏傾瀉而出，叮叮噹噹地落進鏽跡斑斑的回收車裏。

In Portland, Ore., where I lived for six years, I would watch most Sunday nights as a neighbor deposited two giant Merlot bottles in my recycling bin. Her house was a block away, and she had her own bin─but apparently mine seemed like a more discreet place to stash her empties. In New York's Westchester County, where I had lived previously, women would pass around a flask at dreary school functions. Alcohol and motherhood were intertwined, so much so that after I had my third daughter in the anxious autumn after 9/11, I received bottle after bottle of wine as baby gifts.

在我住過六年的俄勒岡州波特蘭(Portland)，幾乎每個週日晚上我都會看見一個鄰居在我的垃圾箱裏扔上兩個大的梅樂(Merlot)酒瓶。她家離我家一個街區遠，她也有自己的垃圾箱，但顯然把空酒瓶藏在我這裏似乎更謹慎。在我之前住過的紐約州韋斯特切斯特郡(Westchester County)，女人們會在沉悶的學校活動期間拿出一瓶酒輪着喝。酒精和母親的身份交織在一起，二者結合得如此緊密，以至於我在911後那個焦慮的秋天生下第三個女兒後，人們送我一瓶又一瓶葡萄酒作爲嬰兒禮物。

The growing female predilection for wine seems at first glance like a harmless indulgence for harried mothers who deserve a break. There are T-shirts with a spilled wineglass that say, 'Not so loud, I had book club last night.' Nearly 650,000 women follow 'Moms Who Need Wine' on Facebook, and another 131,000 women are fans of the group called 'OMG, I So Need a Glass of Wine or I'm Gonna Sell My Kids.' The drinking mom has become a cultural trope, from highbrow to pop: Jonathan Franzen's Patty Berglund wanders through the first half of 'Freedom' with a ruddy complexion he calls the 'Chardonnay Splotch.' Wine is so linked to the women of 'Real Housewives' that several cast members have introduced their own brands. That's no accident: According to the Wine Institute, an industry trade group, women buy the lion's share of the nearly 800 million gallons of wine sold in the U.S. annually─and they are its primary drinkers.

越來越多的女性開始偏愛葡萄酒，乍看之下這對過着緊繃生活的媽媽們來說是無傷大雅的放縱，她們放鬆一下是應該的。有T恤上印着一個灑出酒的葡萄酒杯，上面寫着“別那麼大聲，我昨晚參加了書會。”有近65萬名女性在Facebook上關注了“需要酒的媽媽們(Moms Who Need Wine)”賬號，還有13.1萬女性是名爲“噢天啊，我需要一杯酒，否則我會賣掉我孩子 (OMG, I So Need a Glass of Wine or I'm Gonna Sell My Kids)”（的組織的粉絲。從知識界到普羅大衆，“喝酒的媽媽”已經成爲一種文化隱喻：在喬納森•弗蘭岑(Jonathan Franzen)的小說《自由》(Freedom)的上半部分中，帕蒂•伯格蘭(Patty Berglund)一直帶着一種被作者稱爲“霞多麗斑點”(Chardonnay Splotch)的紅潤面色。另外，酒和“家庭主婦真人秀”(Real Housewives)如此密不可分，以至於幾位劇組人員都推出了自己的紅酒品牌。無獨有偶：據行業貿易組織美國葡萄酒協會(Wine Institute)統計，在美國每年售出的近8億加侖(約30億升)葡萄酒中，女性購買的比例更大，而且她們是飲酒的主力軍。

Indeed, more women are drinking now than at any time in recent history, according to health surveys. In the nine years between 1998 and 2007, the number of women arrested for drunken driving rose 30%, while male arrests dropped more than 7%. Between 1999 and 2008, the number of young women who showed up in emergency rooms for being dangerously intoxicated rose by 52%. The rate for young men, though higher, rose just 9%.

的確，據健康調查顯示，現今飲酒的女性比近代歷史上任何時候都多。在1998至2007年這九年間，因醉酒駕駛被捕的女性人數上漲了30%，而男性人數卻下降了7%以上。1999年至2008年間，因嚴重醉酒被送往急診室的年輕女性人數上漲了52%，而年輕男性的人數雖然更多，但只上漲了9%。

These numbers are not driven solely by young women living it up on spring break. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of binge drinking─that is, having four or more drinks for women or five or more for men within two hours─revealed a surprising statistic. While the greatest number, 24%, of binge-drinking women are college-age, 10% of women between 45 and 64 said they binge drink─and so did 3% of women older than 65. The college-age binge drinkers and the senior binge drinkers overdid it with a similar frequency, about three times a month.

這些數字的上漲並不只是因爲春假狂歡的年輕女性。美國疾病控制與預防中心（Centers for Disease Control and Prevention，簡稱CDC）最近一項針對酗酒（指女性兩小時內攝入四杯或以上，男性攝入五杯或以上）的研究得出了出人意料的數據。24%的酗酒女性是大學生，這個人羣比重最大；而年齡在45至64歲的女性中有10%酗酒，65歲以上女性中有3%也表示自己酗酒。大學生和老年人羣會反覆酗酒，頻率相似，大概每個月三次。

Gallup pollsters have repeatedly found that the more educated and well off a woman is, the more likely she is to imbibe. White women are more likely to drink than women of other racial backgrounds, but in the past few decades the percentage of women who classify themselves as regular drinkers has risen across the board. An analysis of the drinking habits of 85,000 Americans in 2002 found that 47% of white women reported being regular drinkers, up from 37% in 1992. The percentage of black women who said they drank regularly rose from 21% to 30%, and the percentage of Hispanic women who said the same grew from 24% to 32%. (American Indian and Asian-American women were not included in the study.)

蓋洛普(Gallup)民意測驗多次發現，女性受教育程度越高、處境越優越，就越容易飲酒。白人女性比其他族裔女性更易飲酒，但過去數十年裏，認爲自己經常喝酒的女性比例整體有所上升。2002年一項針對8.5萬名美國人飲酒習慣所做的分析發現，47%的白人女性表示自己經常喝酒，較1992年的37%有所上升。表示經常飲酒的黑人女性比例從21%升至30％，西班牙裔女性的比例從24%升至32％。（該研究未納入美國印第安人及亞裔女性。）

In one sense, the rising rates of alcohol consumption by women are a sign of parity. But this is one arena in which equal treatment yields unequal outcomes. Women are more vulnerable than men to alcohol's toxic effects. Their bodies have more fat, which retains alcohol, and less water, which dilutes it, so women drinking the same amount as men their size and weight become intoxicated more quickly. Males also have more of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol before it enters the bloodstream. This may be one reason why alcohol-related liver and brain damage appear more quickly in heavy-drinking women than men.

從某種意義來說，女性飲酒比例的升高是男女平等跡象的一種。但這是一個平等對待卻會產生不平等結果的領域。對於酒精的毒性反應，女性比男性更易受影響。女性體內脂肪更多，會留存酒精，而起稀釋作用的水卻比較少，因此同樣身高和體重的女性和男性攝入相同量的酒時，女性醉得更快。男性體內的乙醇脫氫 也更多，這種物質可以在酒精進入血液前分解酒精。這或許也是爲什麼酒精導致的肝臟和大腦損傷在嗜酒女性身上比男性更快出現的一個原因。

Still, modern women haven't caught up to the drinking habits of America's early settlers, whose only safe beverage was alcohol. Historians estimate that colonial men and women drank about a gallon of low-alcohol beer or hard cider a day. In a collection of 500 recipes that Martha Washington left to her granddaughter, 50 were for boozy drinks, plus a couple of hangover cures.

儘管如此，現代女性還是趕不上美國早期殖民者的飲酒習慣，當時他們唯一的安全飲料就是酒。歷史學家估計，殖民時期的男性和女性每天喝大約一加侖（約3.8升）的低度啤酒或蘋果酒。在瑪莎•華盛頓(Martha Washington)留給孫女包括500份食譜的集子裏，有50份是酒的配方，還有好幾種解酒方子。

The growing sales of wine to women can be traced to some clever marketing decisions in the 1960s by California's vintners. Wineries had all but perished during Prohibition, and the beverage was considered the drink of poor immigrants and Skid Row drunks. Americans, accustomed to more straightforward spirits and beer, were slow to warm to wine's complexities.

葡萄酒針對女性銷售量的增加可追溯至20世紀60年代加州葡萄酒商精明的營銷決策。釀酒廠在禁酒時期(Prohibition)紛紛沒落，葡萄酒被認爲是貧窮移民及貧民窟酒鬼才喝的東西。習慣於喝更直接的烈酒或啤酒的美國人花了很長時間纔開始喜歡葡萄酒複雜的味道。

Wine also felt off-limits to women. It was consumed mostly in restaurants, where waiters offered men the wine list, the first taste and the cork. Strategists saw a growth opportunity in the vast numbers of postwar housewives. 'We used to joke that if we could just get a bottle of sherry into the kitchen, we'd be off and running,' says Harvey Posert, one of the industry's early promoters.

葡萄酒對女性來說也是禁區。葡萄酒大都是在餐廳消費，服務員會把葡萄酒單、試飲杯和軟木塞遞給男性客人。有戰略眼光者看到了葡萄酒在戰後大量家庭主婦人羣中的增長機遇。行業早期推動者之一哈維•波澤特(Harvey Posert)說：“我們以前開玩笑說，如果能把一瓶雪利酒弄到廚房去，我們就飛黃騰達了。”

Vineyards got an unexpected boost from Jacqueline Kennedy, who in 1962 led 56 million viewers on a televised tour of the White House. In the dining room, the camera panned to the elegantly laid table, lingering for a few seconds on the crystal glasses next to each place setting. Few could afford the first lady's designer clothes, but the crystal, manufactured in West Virginia, was a small piece of Camelot glamour that women could own for themselves. It took the Morgantown Glass Co. factory years to fill all the orders.

葡萄園因爲傑奎琳•肯尼迪(Jackie Kennedy)而意外得到了提振。1962年，她引導5,600萬電視觀衆參觀了白宮(White House)。在餐廳，鏡頭搖到精心擺放好餐具的餐桌前，在每份餐具旁的水晶杯上停留幾秒鐘。很少有人能買得起第一夫人的名牌衣服，但產於西弗吉尼亞的水晶杯卻是女人們能擁有的可感受到卡米洛特(Camelot)宮殿般豪華的小物件。Morgantown Glass Co.玻璃工廠花了好幾年時間才完成了所有訂單。

Getting female buyers for the wine, though, was another challenge. In California, where laws allowed wine to be sold in supermarkets, Robert Mondavi's marketers hired middle-age housewives to stand at in-store tasting booths. The saleswomen offered shoppers sips from bottles that would pair perfectly with what they had planned for dinner. The friendly older women helped turn the younger women into confident consumers.

不過讓女性買葡萄酒又是一個挑戰。在加州，法律允許超市銷售葡萄酒，於是羅伯特•蒙達維（Robert Mondavi）酒莊的市場推廣人員僱傭中年家庭主婦站在店裏的試喝攤位旁邊。女銷售員爲購物者挑選能與她們所計劃的晚餐完美搭配的葡萄酒，並讓她們品嚐。那位友善的老婦人幫助年輕女性們成爲有信心的消費者。

Women's magazines offered tips on how to order, serve and drink the stuff; McCall's magazine, in 1977, featured wine as essential to an 'Anti-Stress Diet.' Meanwhile, women in California were beginning to make wine, too, experimenting with tastes and textures that appealed to them.

女性雜誌提供點酒、倒酒和喝酒的技巧；1977年，McCall's雜誌將葡萄酒標榜爲“抗壓食譜”的必需品。與此同時，加州的女性也開始釀酒，探索自己喜歡的口感和質地。

Today, wine is certainly in American kitchens. It's there for enjoyment, of course, but also as a respectable antidote to modern stress─especially for women.

如今，美國廚房裏必定會有葡萄酒。當然是爲了享受，但同時也是應對現代生活壓力的一劑體面的良藥，尤其是對於女性。

Some social scientists link the rise in female alcohol consumption to the changing role of women in society. Rick Grucza, an epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who studies alcohol-use disorders, correlates women's drinking to the rise in female college attendance. Others suggest that many women continue unhealthy postcollege drinking patterns in male-dominated industries such as finance and technology. Still others find a link among women who step away from their careers to be at home. 'The baby's crying, they're not getting paid, they're bored and anxious─and feel guilty that they're bored and anxious,' says Mary Ellen Barnes, a psychologist in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., who treats many female heavy drinkers. Drinking several tall glasses of wine can make those feelings recede─at least for a few hours.

有社會學家將女性飲酒量增加與女性在社會中角色的變化聯繫起來。路易斯華盛頓大學醫學院(Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis)專門研究酒精使用障礙的流行病學家裏克•格魯恰(Rick Grucza)認爲女性飲酒與女性上大學比例的上升成正比。還有人表示，許多女性大學畢業後會在金融和科技等男性主導行業繼續不健康的飲酒習慣。還有人則發現與離職回家的女性人羣有關。加州Rolling Hills Estates治療過許多女性嗜酒者的心理學家瑪麗•艾倫•巴恩斯(Mary Ellen Barnes)說：“孩子在哭，又沒人付她們薪水，無聊又焦慮，而且她們爲自己無聊和焦慮的狀態感到內疚。”喝幾杯葡萄酒可以使這些情緒消退──至少能維持幾個小時。

Does that amount to a drinking problem? Doctors around the world differ. The National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Department of Health and Human Services say that for American women, anything more than a drink a day is risky. In countries such as France, Italy and Spain, where life expectancy for women is longer, authorities set the safe threshold at double that─and sometimes higher.

這是不是酗酒問題呢？世界各地的醫生們看法迥異。美國國家酗酒與酒精中毒研究所(National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)以及美國衛生及公共服務部(Department of Health and Human Services)表示，每天喝一杯酒以上都是有風險的。在女性預期壽命比較長的法國、意大利和西班牙，政府將安全標準定在兩杯，有時更高。

Many of the women whom I interviewed said that the strict limits set by American law helped to drive their drinking underground. A few glasses slide into a whole bottle, which becomes an embarrassing habit that needs to be concealed.

在我採訪過的女性中，很多人說美國法律規定的嚴格標準讓她們的喝酒變成了地下行爲。從瓶子裏倒出幾杯酒成了需要隱藏的見不得人的習慣。