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One half of Gabriel Ann Maher’s hair is cut short, and the other half has been left to grow long. “If I wear it up with a blunt fringe, I look like one person, but with the hair down and my fringe swept away from my face, I look completely different and someone always says: ‘Oh! You look so feminine,”’ Maher said. “That’s why I have asymmetric hair — it allows me to be several people.”
加布里埃尔·安·马希尔(Gabriel Ann Maher)把一半头发剪短，让另一半接着留长。“如果把头发梳起来，把齐刘海放下来，我看起来是一个样子；把头发放下来，把刘海梳到一边，就成了完全不同的样子。放下头发以后，总有人对我说：‘哦！你可真有女人味，’”马希尔说，“所以我留了个不对称发型，让我能变成好几副模样。”
An Australian designer now living in the Dutch city Eindhoven, Maher is one of the growing number of people who regard themselves as neither male nor female, but as having a fluid gender identity. Gender politics is a central theme of Maher’s work. A recent project analyzed the depiction of gender in a year’s issues of the Dutch design magazine “Frame,” and discovered that more than 80 percent of the people, mostly designers and architects, photographed in its editorial pages and the models in the advertisements were male.
马希尔是澳大利亚设计师，目前住在荷兰埃因霍温市。越来越多的人像马希尔这样，认为自己既非男性，亦非女性，而是拥有不断变化的性别身份。性别政治是马希尔工作的一个中心主题。前不久，他分析了荷兰设计杂志《框架》(Frame)一年内所有期刊的性别描绘，发现社论版的拍摄对象（主要是设计师和建筑师）和广告中的模特超过80%是男性。
At a time of renewed interest in feminism and growing awareness of transgenderism, designers are striving to imbue products, graphics, environments and technology with subtler, more eclectic interpretations of gender both in commercial projects and conceptual ones like Maher’s. What will the outcome be?
如今，女性主义重又引发人们的兴趣，变性主义也越来越引起人们的注意，所以设计师们努力把更微妙、更折中的性别阐释渗透到商业项目和概念项目（比如马希尔的《框架》研究项目）的产品、图像、环境和技术中。结果会是怎样的呢？
Until recently, most design experiments in gender identity focused on clothing and other aspects of personal styling that can be customized easily and inexpensively, like hair. This spring, the British retail group Selfridges opened dedicated spaces selling gender-neutral fashion in several department stores. But reflecting diverse interpretations of gender in other areas of design has proved more challenging, not least because they often involve the development of expensive, technologically complex objects whose design has traditionally been standardized to facilitate mass production.
直到不久前，关于性别身份的设计实验主要集中在服装或发型等个人风格方面，因为这些不用花太多钱就能轻松改变。今年春天，英国零售集团塞尔福里奇(Selfridges)在自己的几家百货商场开设专门销售中性服装的空间。不过，事实证明，其他设计领域反映多样化性别阐释的难度更大，主要是因为那些领域的产品更昂贵，技术更复杂。为了便于大批量生产，那些产品的设计早已定型。
“It’s easy to say that design must embrace these changes, but much more difficult to do it,” said Uta Brandes, professor of design and gender at the Cologne International School of Design. “Though that shouldn’t stop us.”
“设计应该顺应这些变化，这说起来简单，做起来就难得多，”科隆国际设计学校(Cologne International School of Design)的设计与性别教授乌塔·布兰德斯(Uta Brandes)说，“不过，我们不应该因此止步。”
Much of the existing research on design’s gender politics was conducted by late-20th-century feminist design theorists. Typically, it critiques the male dominance of the design industry, and its role in perpetuating clichéd concepts of masculinity and femininity. Since then, a number of influential female designers have emerged, including Hella Jongerius in furniture and Irma Boom in books. Yet the balance of power still favors men, as illustrated by Maher’s “Frame” analysis.
关于设计性别政治，现有的研究大多是女性主义设计理论家们在20世纪末进行的。那些研究主要涉及男性在设计行业的主导地位，以及它对男女特性固有观念形成的影响。自那时起，出现了许多女设计师，包括家具设计师海拉·荣格里斯(Hella Jongerius)和书籍设计师伊尔玛·博姆(Irma Boom)。不过，就像马希尔对《框架》的分析那样，男性仍占主导。
Design is still prone to stylistic stereotypes, like pink for girls and blue for boys, and to outdated assumptions about who will use certain objects. “So many things are designed by men from their perspective,” said the Swedish product designer Katja Pettersson. “Like lawn mowers designed for people with long arms, who find it uncomfortable to push baby strollers, because the handles are too short.” Another example is the difficulty experienced by female amputees in finding suitable artificial limbs, most of which are designed by male prosthetists seemingly for men.
设计仍倾向于固有风格和刻板印象，比如女孩用粉色，男孩用蓝色，某些物品仅供某种性别使用。“有很多东西是男人从自己的视角设计的，”瑞典产品设计师卡特娅·彼得松(Katja Pettersson)说，“比如，割草机是给胳膊长的人设计的，而他们推婴儿推车时会觉得别扭，因为把手太短。”又如，女性截肢者很难找到合适的假肢，那些假肢似乎大多是男性假肢设计者为男人们设计的。
So far the interpretation of gender fluidity in the design of objects and spaces has had mixed results, reflecting the complexity of gender politics and the multiplicity of possible identities. But two distinctive approaches have emerged. One response is for design projects to echo that diversity aesthetically and functionally, as the San Francisco and Stockholm-based company Toca Boca does in its children’s play apps.
到目前为止，产品和空间设计对性别不确定性的阐释产生了复杂的结果，反映出性别政治的复杂性和可能身份的多样性。不过，出现了两种不同的方式。一种方式是从审美和功能上反映这种多样性，例如托卡博卡公司(Toca Boca)的儿童游戏app。该公司在旧金山和斯德哥尔摩设有办事处。
Each app is designed to avoid gender stereotypes. The clients in the hair salon app are male and female with a few whose gender appears ambiguous. The science laboratory is designed in vivid colors, including pastels, and soft, fuzzy forms. In a motor racing app, Toca Boca’s designers also challenge gender clichés by switching the voices to make the girl sound gutsier, and the boy gigglier. The objective, according to Mathilda Engman, head of consumer products, is to give kids the freedom to choose how to play.
该公司所有app的设计都避免性别刻板印象。美发沙龙应用程序里的顾客有男有女，还有一些性别模糊的人。科学实验室色彩鲜艳（含有粉色），形式柔和。在一款赛车应用程序中，托卡博卡的设计师们还挑战声音的性别成见，让女孩的声音听起来更勇敢，让男孩子更喜欢咯咯傻笑。该公司的产品主管玛蒂尔达·恩格曼(Mathilda Engman)说，这样做是为了让孩子们可以自由选择玩游戏的方式。
A second approach is for designers to make their work appear neutral, and open to interpretation. Chris Liljenberg Halstrom, a Danish-Swedish furniture designer in Copenhagen, does so by analyzing each piece in terms of how it is likely to be used, without regard to gender.
另一种方式是设计师们让自己的作品看起来是中性的，可以有不同的解释。哥本哈根家具设计师克里斯·利延贝里·豪尔斯特罗姆(Chris Liljenberg Halstrom)就是采用这种方式，他分析每件家具最可能的使用方式，而不考虑性别。他具有丹麦和瑞典双重国籍。
Halstrom enlivens objects by accentuating their textures, rather than with visual effects, believing that our sense of touch is less prone to gender clichés. An example is the Georg stool in which a gray pillow in richly textured fabric is strapped on to a wooden base. The pillow’s shape can be adapted to suit each sitter. “My objects might not make a lot of noise, but they are who they are and are accepted,” Halstrom said. “That’s how anyone should be allowed to feel, regardless of gender.”
豪尔斯特罗姆的产品更强调质感，而不是视觉效果。他认为，我们的触觉没有那么多性别成见。比如，他设计的乔治凳(Georg stool)是在木头基座上绑一个有丰富质感的灰色织垫。任何人都能把垫子调整成适合自己的形状。“我的作品可能不会引起轰动，但它们纯真质朴，易被接受，”豪尔斯特罗姆说，“任何人都应该被允许去触摸，不管是什么性别。”
A similarly neutral style was adopted for a set of toy kitchen appliances by Pottery Barn Kids, the American chain’ of children’s stores. Made in simple shapes and painted white and gray, the wooden blender and toaster are sold alongside traditionally gendered toys, like a pink kitchen. “Gender-neutral toys are part of the mix, and we’ve noticed a growing interest especially among new parents,” said Allison Spampanato, vice-president of design.
美国儿童连锁商店陶瓷谷仓(Pottery Barn Kids)的一套厨房电器玩具也采用了类似的中性风格。那些木制搅拌机和烤箱形状简单，颜色为白灰两色，它们和区分性别的传统玩具一起出售，比如粉色厨房。“中性玩具是我们产品的一部分，我们发现，人们对它们越来越感兴趣，尤其是年轻父母，”该公司的设计副总裁艾莉森·斯潘帕纳托(Allison Spampanato)说。
Elements of both the eclectic and neutral approaches were adopted by Selfridges in Agender, introduced to its stores in London, Manchester and Birmingham this spring as a six-week experiment. The British designer Faye Toogood designed Agender areas in the London store. Each space was enclosed by steel mesh whose utilitarian aesthetic was shared by plain canvas garment bags containing the clothes. Handwritten signs and garment tags added a personal touch without being explicitly male or female, as did the abstract sculptures made by Toogood in fleshy pinks on the men’s fashion floor, and somber grays on the women’s.
今年春天，塞尔福里奇在伦敦、曼彻斯特和伯明翰的百货商场推出了为期六周的无性别实验(Agender)，采用折中和中性这两种方式的元素。英国设计师法耶·图古德(Faye Toogood)为伦敦的塞尔福里奇百货商场设计了无性别区域。每个空间都用钢丝网围起来，所有的服装都装在朴素的帆布袋里，两者都体现了实用主义审美观。手写的标牌和服装标签增加了个人触感，而没有清楚表明性别。出于同样的目的，图古德为男装层制作了肉粉色的抽象雕塑，把女装层涂成暗淡的灰色。
“I didn’t want Agender to look obviously androgynous, but to be about individuals exploring their identities,” Toogood said. “That’s why people had to make an extra effort by opening the bags to see the clothes.”
“我不想让无性别实验变成明显的雌雄同体，我觉得它关乎个体如何探寻自我身份，”图古德说，“所以人们必须多费些工夫，打开袋子才能看到里面的衣服。”
Describing the response to Agender as “wholly positive,” Linda Hewson, Selfridges’s creative director, said the company “is now thinking about how to progress its principles and aesthetics beyond a six-week scheme into the everyday.”
塞尔福里奇集团的创意总监琳达·休森(Linda Hewson)说，人们对无性别实验的反应“完全是积极的”，她说，公司“现在正在考虑如何让自己的理念和审美观超越六周的实验，成为常态”。
Hewson believes there is equally strong demand for gender-neutral furniture and tech products. Yet other retailers and manufacturers are more conservative. Even designers who are personally committed to developing subtler expressions of gender believe there is still resistance. “The idea has yet to become mainstream,” said Yves Béhar, founder of the San Francisco design group Fuseproject, whose clients include Nike, Google and Samsung.
休森认为，人们对中性家具和科技产品具有同样强烈的需求。不过，其他零售商和制造商的态度更为保守。甚至连那些致力于开发更微妙的性别表达的设计师们也承认，仍有一些阻力。“这种观念尚未成为主流，”旧金山设计集团“融合项目”(Fuseproject)的创始人伊夫·贝哈尔(Yves Béhar)说。该集团的客户包括耐克(Nike)、谷歌(Google)和三星(Samsung)。
This conservatism is apparent in long-term programs to develop future technologies.
这种保守态度在开发未来技术的长期项目中非常明显。
“Corporate research into the design of smart homes is often based on the family of a mother, father and two dependent children, even though those households are now in a minority,” said Nina Wakeford, an associate professor of sociology at Goldsmiths University in London. “There is very interesting radical thinking in design, but a huge disconnect between young people who take the fluidity of gender identity for granted and corporate agendas.”
“公司对智能住宅设计的研究往往基于一个包括父母和两个独立孩子的家庭，尽管这样的家庭现在是少数，”伦敦戈德史密斯大学(Goldsmiths University)的社会学副教授尼娜·韦克福德(Nina Wakeford)说，“设计上存在非常有趣的激进想法，不过对于那些不确定性别身份的年轻人来说，他们的想法与公司规划之间存在明显脱节。”
But the corporate influence over some areas of design may be eroded by technological advances. Digital manufacturing systems, like 3-D printing, are so fast and precise that they can construct objects individually enabling people to personalize them. Eventually, people will be able not only to adjust the height of baby strollers and to ensure that prosthetic limbs fit properly, but also to express different aspects of their characters, including nuances of gender identity in chairs or tech products, as easily as in their clothes and hair.
但是公司对某些设计领域的影响力可能会被技术进步削弱。数字制造系统——比如3D打印——又快又精确，它们能单独制造个性化物品。最终，人们将不仅能够调整婴儿推车的高度，确保假肢正好合适，还能展现自己性格的不同方面，包括在椅子或技术产品上展现细微的性别身份差别，就像在服装和发型上展现那样容易。
