終生大事:嫁還是不嫁 這是個問題
A recent online commercial tells the following story: upon graduating, getting a job and being promoted, the female protagonist’s grandmother, whose health is in decline, keeps asking her the same question, “When are you getting married?”, until the woman finally rushes home in a wedding dress to bring the elderly lady in her dying days the ultimate comfort.
最近一則網絡廣告的情節如下：每當女主角經歷大學畢業、求職成功、工作晉升時，年邁多病的外婆嘴邊總是掛着同一個問題：“結婚了吧？”；直到廣告結尾，女主角身披婚紗衝回家中，終於在外婆臨終滿足了她最大的心願
Marriage puts a lot of pressure on single women, as if they are destined to get married in order to fulfill others’, rather than their own, expectations. But what’s pushing single women into matrimony is a social stereotype and form of self-identification that creates a dilemma for modern women in today’s social contexts, experts say.
婚姻令單身女性們不堪重負，彷彿她們結婚並不是爲了自己，而是爲了滿足他人的期望。然而專家表示，是約定俗成的社會觀念以及通過婚姻實現自我認同迫使單身女性早日嫁人，這也造成了當今社會中現代女性的窘境。
In the book Seeking Happily Ever After: Navigating the Ups and Downs of Being Single Without Losing Your Mind (and Finding Lasting Love Along the Way), US author Michelle Cove tries to reveal what women really want out of a relationship. As reported in Marie Claire, a women’s magazine in the US, Cove identifies some of the categories of single women based on intensive interviews.
在《尋找幸福——不失本心地走過單身的起起落落，並沿路找尋天長地久》一書中，美國作家米歇爾?卡夫試圖揭露出女人在感情中真正想要的東西。在美國女性時尚雜誌《嘉人》的一篇報道中，卡夫在對一些單身女性進行深入採訪後，將她們分成了如下幾類：
The Soul-Mate Seeker
找尋真愛女
Finding “The One” is the most important task in her life.
尋找“真愛”成爲她們生活中的重中之重。
The Phoenix
鳳凰涅槃女
She is doing everything she can to rise from a recent devastating breakup and to be in good shape again.
她們竭盡所能要擺脫上一段戀情帶來的毀滅性打擊，同時想要找回神采奕奕的狀態。
The Organic
有機生活女
She prefers the “let it be” approach and leaves things up to destiny. She lives her own life rather than hunting for men in a methodical way.
她們信奉順其自然，一切聽從命運安排。她們用自己的方式生活，而不是按部就班地去刻意尋求伴侶。
The Free Spirit
自在隨風女
Independence or a relationship? She believes there is no way to reach a compromise between both and therefore leans to the former.
選擇獨立還是結束單身？她們認爲兩者之間很難妥協，所以最終選擇了前者。
The Wedding Wisher
結婚狂想女
She suddenly finds herself fantasizing about getting married after a lifetime of not caring about it.
原本從不考慮結婚的她們突然發現自己幻想着能披上婚紗步入禮堂。
The Trailblazer
獨闢蹊徑女
A woman who knows married life is not for her, so she’s trying to break a new kind of path to happiness.
她們知道婚姻並非自己想要的生活，所以，她們嘗試開拓另一種通往幸福的道路。
叛逆不羈女
She no longer aspires to live the normal lifestyle of everyone else in her community, though she once used to.
她們不想再去過和周圍人一樣的平淡生活，儘管她們從前亦是如此。
The Slow and Steady
穩紮穩打女
A woman who hopes to marry when the time is right. Meanwhile, she does her best not to cave to the massive pressure she feels from friends, family and society.
她們希望自己在時機成熟時步入婚姻。同時，她們也盡全力擺脫朋友、家庭和社會給自己帶來的巨大壓力。
