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British men are abandoning their stiff upper lips but still do not wear their hearts on their sleeves
like Americans, a new survey showed.
When it comes to raw
emotion, the once buttoned-up Brits are now happy to
shed tears quite openly.
"Thirty percent of all British males have cried in the last month. That
is a very high figure," said Peter Marsh, director of the Social Issues
Research Center which took the emotional temperature of Britain.
"Only two percent said they could not remember when they last cried,"
the head of the independent research group said.
Long gone is the "No Tears -- We're British" era when emotion was
considered distinctly bad form.
"In our poll of 2,000 people, very few people in their forties or
fifties had seen their father cry. Now it is twice as many," he told
reporters. "Seventy-seven percent of men considered crying in public
increasingly acceptable."
Almost half the British men opened the floodgates over a sad movie, book or TV
program. Self-pity got 17 percent crying. Nine percent sobbed at weddings.
Women's battle for equal rights has certainly had an effect -- both in
the workplace and at home.
"Men in their twenties or thirties are interacting with women on equal
terms much more so than a generation ago. They have to relate to the
opposite sex. Women become more man-like and men become more female. That
transfers into the work place too," Marsh said.
From the days of Empire, the British have always considered themselves
models of reserve, haughtily
mocking "excitable foreigners" who show no restraint.
Marsh argued the divide was still there: "We have probably not caught
up with the Americans or the Italians when it comes to the actual display
of emotions."
"But we are clearly shifting. What we take as typical British reserve
has been significantly eroded."
Reflecting on the survey's findings, clinical psychologist Ron Bracey
agreed.
"We are catching up with Americans but are not nearly as open as the
French, Italians and the Greeks," he said.
"In the United States, there are five times as many psychologists as there are in UK. That might be self-indulgent but the
Americans want to know what makes them
tick."
(Agencies) |
一項新的調查顯示，英國男性正在不斷拋棄他們不愿流露感情的性格特點，但目前他們仍然不能像美國人那樣直白地表達自己的感情。
現在，當感情上受到傷害時，曾經守口如瓶的英國人也會適當的在公開場合流淚。
英國社會問題研究中心負責“測量”英國人的“情感溫度”，該中心主任彼得·馬什說：“上個月，有30%的英國男性曾經哭過，這是一個很高的比例。”
這個獨立研究小組的組長說：“只有2%的人說他們不記得上一次哭泣是什么時候了。”
“拒絕眼淚——因為我們是英國人”的時代早已遠去，那時，多愁善感被認為是很不好的表現。
獨立研究小組的組長說：“在我們抽樣調查的2000人中，40多歲或50多歲的人很少看到過他們的父親流淚。現在流淚的人數是過去的兩倍。77%的男性認為他們越來越可以接受在公眾面前流淚。”
大約有一半的英國男性因為看令人悲傷的電影、書或電視節目而流淚。17%的男性曾因自憐而哭泣。9%的男性曾在婚禮上落淚。
當然，女性在工作和家庭中為爭取平等權利而進行的斗爭（對男性流淚比例提高）也起到了一定的作用。
馬什說：“20多歲或30多歲的男性和女性之間平等的相互影響要比上一代人頻繁得多。他們必須學會和異性相處。女人越來越男性化，而男人越來越女性化。工作領域中也有這樣的趨勢。”
自從帝國時代開始，英國人就一直認為自己是含蓄緘默的典范，他們傲慢地嘲笑那些毫不控制情緒的“易興奮的外國人”。
馬什認為即使現在區別仍然存在：“當真正表達情感的時候，我們可能還是不如美國人或意大利人直白。”
“但是我們確實在改變。我們所恪守的典型的英國式保守已經發生了很大的變化。”
臨床心理學家羅恩·布魯斯在仔細研究了這項調查結果后表示同意這種說法。
他說：“我們正在追趕美國人，但是還不能像法國人、意大利人和希臘人那樣直白地表達情感。”
“美國心理學家的人數是英國心理學家的5倍，這或許多了些，但是美國人想知道是什么使他們落淚的。”
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2004-10-04 09:22
