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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) |
一项新的调查显示，英国男性正在不断抛弃他们不愿流露感情的性格特点，但目前他们仍然不能像美国人那样直白地表达自己的感情。
现在，当感情上受到伤害时，曾经守口如瓶的英国人也会适当的在公开场合流泪。
英国社会问题研究中心负责“测量”英国人的“情感温度”，该中心主任彼得·马什说：“上个月，有30%的英国男性曾经哭过，这是一个很高的比例。”
这个独立研究小组的组长说：“只有2%的人说他们不记得上一次哭泣是什么时候了。”
“拒绝眼泪——因为我们是英国人”的时代早已远去，那时，多愁善感被认为是很不好的表现。
独立研究小组的组长说：“在我们抽样调查的2000人中，40多岁或50多岁的人很少看到过他们的父亲流泪。现在流泪的人数是过去的两倍。77%的男性认为他们越来越可以接受在公众面前流泪。”
大约有一半的英国男性因为看令人悲伤的电影、书或电视节目而流泪。17%的男性曾因自怜而哭泣。9%的男性曾在婚礼上落泪。
当然，女性在工作和家庭中为争取平等权利而进行的斗争（对男性流泪比例提高）也起到了一定的作用。
马什说：“20多岁或30多岁的男性和女性之间平等的相互影响要比上一代人频繁得多。他们必须学会和异性相处。女人越来越男性化，而男人越来越女性化。工作领域中也有这样的趋势。”
自从帝国时代开始，英国人就一直认为自己是含蓄缄默的典范，他们傲慢地嘲笑那些毫不控制情绪的“易兴奋的外国人”。
马什认为即使现在区别仍然存在：“当真正表达情感的时候，我们可能还是不如美国人或意大利人直白。”
“但是我们确实在改变。我们所恪守的典型的英国式保守已经发生了很大的变化。”
临床心理学家罗恩·布鲁斯在仔细研究了这项调查结果后表示同意这种说法。
他说：“我们正在追赶美国人，但是还不能像法国人、意大利人和希腊人那样直白地表达情感。”
“美国心理学家的人数是英国心理学家的5倍，这或许多了些，但是美国人想知道是什么使他们落泪的。”
（中国日报网站译） |
Updated: 2004-10-04 09:22
