Retrospect is a wonderful thing. It allows you to – with a slightly more critical eye –see what led you here, how you turned into who you are and, hopefully, how society has changed and improved.
回首往事是一件很美妙的事儿。这让你得以——以比较批判性的眼光——看看是什么引领你走到现在，你是如何变成现在的你的，而且还有机会看看社会发生了何种变化、有了何种改善。
Take, for instance my first career goal. I wanted, in 1999, to be a “farmers wife”. Thankfully, after quick correction by my progressive parents, that morphed into “farmer”, but that only lasted until my dad told me you had to put your arms up cows' backsides. Immediately, I re-thought my career path. Archaeologist followed, and driving instructor after that, then somewhere along the way, footballer.
比如我的第一个职业目标。1999年时，我希望成为“农人的妻子”。幸运的是，在被我具有进步思想的父母迅速纠正后，我的目标变成了成为“农人”，但等我爸爸告诉我当农妇需要把胳膊放到奶牛的屁股上后，这个目标就此打住。很快，我重新考虑了我的职业道路。接下来是成为考古学家，后来是驾驶教练，再后来的某个时刻，是成为足球运动员。
I had grown up in a football-loving family; my dad had played, and been one to watch in the Liverpool FC Boys squad until injury forced him out. My parents met at Anfield and fell in love as teenagers, and my older sister Stevie trained with Crewe Alexandra Girls for a year or two as a left back just like our hero Jamie Carragher.
我成长于一个热爱足球的家庭，爸爸曾经在利物浦足球俱乐部少年队小队中踢球，而且是一名受关注的球员，但后来因为受伤被迫退出。我父母年少时在安菲尔德球场相识并坠入情网。而我的姐姐史蒂维在克鲁亚历山大女子足球队训练了一两年，就像我们的英雄杰米·卡拉格一样是左后卫。
I remember the exact moment I told my dad I was interested in doing what my big sister did. I was watching the game with him in the living room as a pre-teen and it just came out: “It makes me sad I can't be a footballer.” He asked why not, and I answered: “Because I'm not a boy.”
我还记得我告诉爸爸我对大姐所做的事情感兴趣的那一刻。当时我还不到13岁，正和他一起在客厅里看比赛，我顺口说了一句：“真遗憾我不能成为一名足球运动员。”他问为什么不能，我回答说：“因为我不是男孩子。”
He immediately responded by telling me that women's football was “great” and that I could play if I wanted to. “Yeah, I suppose,” I responded “but no one watches women's football.” Looking back I can see exactly why I felt like that.
他立即作出回应，告诉我女子足球“很了不起”，而且如果我想踢球就可以去踢。“我猜，是吧，”我回答说，“但没有人看女子足球呀。”现在回过头来看，我可以完全明白自己为什么会有那种感觉。
At school, there was an unwritten rule that sports like hockey and netball were “girl” sports and rugby and football were for the boys. I'd never seen a women's football match on TV; the only female athletes I'd heard of were in the Olympics.
学校里有一条不成文的规定，曲棍球和篮网球是“女生”运动，而橄榄球和足球是给男生玩儿的。我在电视上从来没有看到过女子足球比赛，我听说过的女运动员都是在奥运会上。
Representation is critical, and although we talk about it a lot, I'm yet to be convinced that those who are represented often fully understand what it means to those who aren't, and how, without really realising, it affects the decisions they make and the general trajectory of their life. In the words of Marian Wright-Edelman, “you can't be what you can't see,” and lack of representation leads, at best, to a misunderstanding and ignorance around a certain group of people, and at worst,fear, negative stereotypes and discrimination.
代表性是至关重要的。尽管我们就这个问题有过很多讨论，但仍然无法让我信服，那些得到代表的人通常能够充分理解对没有得到的人来说这意味着什么，而且在没有意识到这一点的情况下，它又如何影响着他们所做的决定，以及他们整体的人生轨迹。用玛丽安·赖特·埃德尔曼的话说，“你无法成为你没见过的人”，而缺少代表在最好的情况下会导致对特定群体的误解和无知，最坏的情况则会导致恐惧、负面的刻板印象和歧视。
Today, the Lionesses will take on Scotland in the World Cup, and people across the world will tune in - over 950,000 tickets have been sold so far for the 2019 tournament. But, although women's football has turned out to be one of FIFA's best investments – with a pound for pound return, the majority of female players in top tiers are earning under what anyone would consider a fair wage, and only ￡24 million prize money was awarded to the women's World Cup victors in comparison to ￡315 million in the men's. That's a vast difference.
今天，母狮队（英格兰队）将在世界杯上迎战苏格兰队，全世界的人们都将观看这场比赛——迄今为止，2019年的比赛已经卖出了95万张门票。但是，尽管女足最终成为国际足联最好的投资——投入1英镑就有1英镑的收益——大多数顶级女运动员的收入仍然低于任何人都会认为的公平收入水平。女足世界杯的获胜者奖金只有2400万英镑（1英镑约会8.7元人民币——本网注），而男足获胜者的奖金为3.15亿英镑。这堪称天壤之别。
On Twitter you'll find that the most popular defence of those figures argues that there's less money in the female side of the game because viewing stats are lower than those played by their male counterparts, but the truth is,investment is needed for female football to become more visible and become an equally respected game. The rise in support over the last few years for it – and the Lionesses in particular – shows the demand is there, but without risk-taking, a self-fulfilling cycle that hampers progress will continue. After all, there'll always be less demand if you don't build awareness with supply in the first place.
在推特上，你会发现对于这些数字最流行的辩护是，女足比赛的奖金少是因为收视统计数据低于男足比赛。但真相是，要使女足更为人所知并成为一项受到同等尊重的比赛，就需要对女足进行投资。过去几年对女足——尤其是母狮队——的支持增加表明存在这种需求，但是如果不冒一点险，一种阻碍进步的自我实现的循环就会继续。毕竟，如果从一开始就不树立起供给意识，需求就会减少。
Today, I'll be cheering on the Lionesses, and“It's coming home” will mean more this time around, because it'll means talented, skilful female footballers being broadcast into millions of homes and maybe, just maybe, a little girl believing that she too can be a Lioness one day.
今天，我将为母狮队加油，而且这次“足球要回家了”将有更多的含义。因为它将意味着拥有天赋、技术娴熟的女足球运动员，将通过电视走进千家万户，而且或许，仅仅是或许，一个小女孩会相信她有朝一日也可以成为母狮队中的一员。
（刘晓燕译自英国《每日电讯报》网站6月9日文章）
