By the time she died on Wednesday, at 92 years old at her home in New York, Gloria Steinem was synonymous(同义的；等同的) with feminism, a kind of human mascot(吉祥物) for the movement. So it can be easy to forget that when she was born, feminism was over. It was something that had been faddish(一时流行的，赶时髦的) years before, among women who were now old ladies; something that seemed, in retrospect, like it might have been a bit overwrought(过度紧张的；过度兴奋的) and out of touch(脱离实际的；不了解情况的). To the girl Gloria Steinem, growing up in Ohio in the 1930s and 40s, the suffrage movement that had gained women the right to vote less than two decades prior probably seemed remote – especially to a girl like her, growing up itinerant and poor under the care of a single mother who was plagued by a violent and debilitating mental illness.(对于在俄亥俄州长大的女孩格洛丽亚·斯泰纳姆来说，不到二十年前为女性赢得投票权的选举权运动或许显得遥远——尤其对她这样一个女孩而言，她在单亲母亲的照料下过着漂泊贫困的生活，而母亲饱受暴烈且令人衰弱的心理疾病折磨。) You might say that growing up, Steinem had worries that were more immediate than the status of women.
当她于周三在纽约家中去世时，享年92岁，格洛丽亚·斯泰纳姆已成为女权主义的代名词，堪称该运动的吉祥物。因此人们很容易忘记，在她出生时，女权主义已经过时了。那是多年前在如今已成老妇的女人中流行过一阵的东西；回想起来，它似乎有点过度夸张、脱离现实。对于在20世纪30年代和40年代于俄亥俄州长大的女孩格洛丽亚·斯泰纳姆来说，不到二十年前为女性赢得投票权的选举权运动或许显得遥远——尤其对她这样一个女孩而言，她在单亲母亲的照料下过着漂泊贫困的生活，而母亲饱受暴烈且令人衰弱的精神疾病折磨。你或许会说，成长过程中，斯泰纳姆有比女性地位更迫切的烦恼。
But experience has a way of(总会，有办法) radicalizing(使激进，使极端化) women about their own gendered(性别化的，与性别相关的) condition. Steinem attended Smith, and her education opened up previously unhoped for(意想不到的，未曾希望的) possibilities. En route(在途中) to a postgraduate fellowship(研究金，奖学金) in India in 1957, when she was in her early 20s, she had an illegal abortion(堕胎，流产) in London. Later, in 1969, while she was working as a journalist for New York magazine, she attended an “abortion speak-out(公开表白会，坦白会)” put on by a group of radical women from the emergent(新兴的，出现的) fringe(边缘，外围) of what was then called the Women’s Liberation movement.
但经历总会以某种方式让女性对自己所处的性别状况变得激进。斯泰纳姆就读于史密斯学院，她的教育开启了此前不敢奢望的可能性。1957年，在她20岁出头时，前往印度攻读研究生奖学金途中，她在伦敦做过一次非法堕胎。后来，在1969年，当她为《纽约》杂志担任记者时，她参加了一场“堕胎坦白会”，该活动由一群激进女性组织，她们来自当时被称为“妇女解放运动”的新兴边缘群体。
The women, crowded into a church near Washington Square Park, talked about being blindfolded(被蒙住眼睛的) in the backs of cars as the mobsters(黑帮成员，匪徒) drove them to motels, where illegal abortions were performed by drunk, lascivious(好色的，淫荡的) or simply cruel doctors. They talked about having to threaten suicide, over and over, to get a legal exemption(豁免，免除); they talked about lying in hospital wards, hemorrhaging(大出血) or riddled with(充满，布满（坏事）) sepsis(脓毒症，败血症), unsure that they would live. Their rage at the pain and humiliation(羞辱，屈辱) struck something in(触动了某人的心弦) Steinem. She had already been writing about women’s status – her famous article “A Bunny’s Tale”, in which she went undercover at the Playboy Club, ears and all – had been published six years before.(她当时已经在写关于女性地位的文章——她著名的文章《兔女郎的故事》，她在文中戴着兔耳朵等全套装备，在花花公子俱乐部卧底——六年前就已发表。) But the woman Steinem would become was born on that March day, in that church.
这些女性挤在华盛顿广场公园附近的一座教堂里，讲述她们被蒙住眼睛坐在汽车后座，黑帮分子开车带她们去汽车旅馆，在那里由醉酒、好色或干脆残忍的医生进行非法堕胎。她们谈到不得不一次又一次地威胁自杀，以获得合法的豁免；她们谈到躺在医院病房里，大出血或浑身脓毒症，不确定自己能否活下来。她们对痛苦和屈辱的愤怒触动了斯泰纳姆的某根心弦。她当时已经在写关于女性地位的文章——她著名的文章《兔女郎的故事》，她在文中戴着兔耳朵等全套装备，在花花公子俱乐部卧底——六年前就已发表。但斯泰纳姆后来成为的那个女人，在那个三月天，在那座教堂里诞生了。