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  • Marriage rates in the U.S. have hit an historic low.

    美國結婚率創下歷史新低

  • Annual revenue of the online dating industry is at an all-time high. $1.049 Billion.

    線上交友產業出現前所未有的高年營業額,十億四千九百萬美元

  • Ever wonder if romantic relationships are getting increasingly more difficult to navigate these days?

    是否覺得情感關係變得越來越難以掌控?

  • Why fewer couples are getting married and later than ever before?

    為什麼相較於過去,結婚人數變少婚齡也變晚?

  • Time for a crash course on the Economics of Sex.

    歡迎收看「性愛經濟學」懶人包!

  • Let’s think about sex as an exchange where each person gives the other person something of themselves.

    假設性愛是場交易,每人都要拿出自己的東西與另一人交換

  • It might appear at face value that they are giving the same thing - - intimate

    表面上看來,他們付出的東西相同 --

  • access to each other’s bodies - - but there’s more going on here than meets the eye.

    身體上的親密接觸,但事情並不只你看到的那樣

  • Men and Women both enjoy sex. We all know that. But what’s interesting is how the data tells us that men and women experience sex differently.

    我們知道男女都享受性愛,有趣的是資料顯示男女雙方對性愛的感受相異

  • On average, Men have a higher sex drive than women. Blame it on testosterone, call it whatever

    一般來說男人的性慾比女人強,要怪就怪睪固酮素吧~隨你怎麼說

  • you want--but on average, men initiate sex more than women, they're more sexually permissive

    男人往往比女人主動,性觀念也比女人開放

  • than women, and they connect sex to romance less often than women. Nobody’s saying this

    他們比較少將性愛與感情聯想在一起

  • is the way it ought to be. It’s just the way it is.

    沒人說這樣是應該的,但事實就是如此

  • Women, on the other hand, are likely to have sex for reasons beyond just simple pleasure.

    相反地,女人做愛不只是為了享受魚水之歡

  • Her motivations for sex often include expressing and receiving love, strengthening commitment, affirming desirability, and relationship security.  

    她們的動機通常包含情感交流、鞏固承諾,肯定自我魅力,以及獲得安全感

  • So in an exchange relationship where men want sex more often than women do who decides when it will happen?

    所以在這場交易中,男人比女人渴望性愛由誰決定發生的時機?

  • She does, of course. Sex is her resource.

    當然是女人!性是女人的籌碼

  • Sex in consensual relationships will happen when women want it to.

    在兩廂情願的關係中,性愛在女方想要時才發生

  • So how do women decide to begin a sexual relationship?

    那女人該如何決定發展床上關係?

  • Pricing. Women have something of value that men wantbadly, something men are actually willing to sacrifice for.

    依性愛的價值而定。女人擁有男人極度渴望的珍寶,男人願意為此犧牲奉獻

  • So how much does sex cost for men?

    他們付出的代價是?

  • It might cost him nothing but a few drinks and compliments, or a month of dates and respectful attention,

    除了酒和甜言蜜語之外,也許其它什麼都不需要,也許要約會一段時間還保持君子風度

  • or all the way up to a lifetime promise to share all of his affections, wealth and earnings with her exclusively.

    或是始終如一,承諾她終生寵愛並與她共享畢生積蓄

  • Thepricevaries widely. But if women are the gatekeepers, why don’t very many womencharge moreso to speak?

    代價可多可寡。但如果女人能掌控主權,她們何不予取予求呢?

  • Because pricing is not entirely up to women.

    因為定價不全由女人決定

  • Themarket valueof sex is part of a social system of exchange, aneconomyif you will,

    性愛的「市場價值」是社會交易體系的一部份,也就是 「經濟」

  • where men and women learn from each otherand from otherswhat they ought to expect from each other sexually.  

    男女雙方可從另一半或其它人身上,滿足各自的性需求

  • So sex is not entirely a private matter between two consenting adults.

    所以性愛不全然是兩人私下約定好的事

  • Think of it as basic..Supply and Demand.

    想想最基本的供給和需求

  • When supplies are high prices drop, since people won’t pay more for something that’s easy to find.

    供過於求時價格會下跌,因為人們不會為唾手可得的物品花費

  •  But if it’s hard to find, people will pay a premium.

    但如果很稀少,人們可就願意花大錢了

  • And the same rings true with sex.  Men know that sex is cheap these days, if they know where to look.

    性愛也是相同的道理,現今男人知道只要有管道,「性」可以很廉價

  • So how did we get here? How did the market value of sex decline so drastically?

    何以形成這樣的局面?性愛市價為什麼會暴跌呢?

  • Economists often speak oftechnological shocksthat dramatically alter markets.

    經濟學家常說「科技衝擊」造成市場劇烈變動

  • Take pesticides for example

    以殺蟲劑為例

  • Pesticides revolutionized agriculture, enabling its mass production on a level unparalleled in the history of human civilization.

    殺蟲劑造成農業改革,量產技術達到人類文明史上空前進步

  • Lawns became greener. Produce became better, and

    草地更青綠、農產品更優良

  • widely available with a marvelous variety. We eat like kings now.

    也更具豐富多樣性,我們現在餐餐山珍海味

  • And the market has changed ... forever.

    市場也自此永遠改變

  • Here’s another example: Artificial hormonal contraception or The Pill, allowed men and women to have sex while avoiding pregnancy.

    另一個例子:人工賀爾蒙避孕法,也就是避孕藥,讓男女做愛同時也能避孕

  • This was a technological shock that forever altered the mating market, by profoundly  lowering the cost of sex.

    這個科技衝擊大幅貶低性愛價值,導致擇偶市場的改變

  • It didn’t change overnight, but the effects have beenone might sayrevolutionary.

    雖然轉變不在一夕之間,但卻造成,嗯~革命性的巨大影響

  • Before contraception, sex before marriage took place during the search for a mate- someone to marry.

    避孕藥發明前,婚前性行為在尋找結婚對象時才會發生

  • Sex didn’t necessarily mean marriage, but serious commitment was commonly a requirement for sex.

    性行為不一定意味著結婚,但通常伴隨著重大承諾

  • Sex was oriented towards marriage.

    性愛以婚姻為導向

  • Don’t believe people who say your great-grandparents were secretly as casual about sex as your friends are. They weren’t,

    別聽人說曾祖父母那一代,私生活跟你朋友一樣隨便,這是不可能的!

  • because to mess around with sex eventually meant, well, becoming parents.

    因為遊戲人間的結果,就得為人父母

  • Now...remember the example ofpesticides?” It turns out that they had unforeseen effects

    還記得殺蟲劑的例子嗎?事實上它帶來不可預見的後果,造成環境浩劫

  • that are wreaking havoc on the environment and weakening the natural ecological systems that we depend on.

    導致我們賴以生存的自然生態體系惡化

  • Scientists believe that because of pesticides, the bee population is dropping at an alarming rate.

    科學家相信,殺蟲劑使蜜蜂數量以驚人的速度銳減

  • One-third of all the food we eat depends on those bees for pollination.

    而我們有1/3的食物須仰賴蜜蜂授粉

  • And that’s just one example. It is now feared that the overuse of pesticides is throwing ecology as we know it into disarray. 


    這只是其中一個例子,現在擔憂的是過度使用殺蟲劑,將導致生態環境陷入混亂

  • While the original purpose of the Pill was to prevent pregnancy, the data reveals an unanticipated side-effect:

    避孕藥最初目的是避孕,研究卻意外揭露一項副作用:

  • the Pill threw the mating market into disarray.

    避孕藥使擇偶市場陷入混亂

  • Having sex and thinking about marriage have now become two quite different things.

    如今性愛與婚姻已成為不相干的事

  • We now have a split mating market:

    擇偶市場變得兩極化

  • One corner where people are largely interested in sex and one corner where people are largely pursuing marriage.

    一端是對性愛大感興趣的人,一端是對婚姻殷殷期盼的人

  • And there are more men looking for sex than women, and more women looking to marry than men.

    男人比較想要性愛,而女人比較想要婚姻

  • The language of online dating reinforces the reality of this split mating market.

    交友網站上的用詞,證明擇偶市場兩極化的事實

  • Men are more apt to write that theyrelooking for fun,” while women tend to signal very

    男人傾向表達他們只想逢場作戲,而女人似乎發出完全不同的訊號

  • different things, saying things likeonly serious inquiries, pleaseornot into games.”

    她們寫著「非誠勿擾」、或是「不玩愛情遊戲」的訊息

  • So this split mating market poses a particular problem for women.

    因此擇偶市場的分歧,為女人帶來嚴重的問題

  • They certainly call the shots when it comes to short-term sexual relationships because men outnumber them.

    在短暫性關係中,她們當然可以發號司令,因為男性人數比女性多

  • This enables women to be more selective in the short-term. But the reverse is true when they decide they want to settle down.

    所以女人在短暫關係裡,多的是選擇。但當她們想要成家時,情況卻相反

  • We often hear aboutmen’s lack of commitment,” but the blunt reality is an economic one:

    我們常說「男人害怕承諾」,但經濟上的殘酷現實是

  • Women vastly outnumber men in the "marriage market" which means men can be picky and can insist on extensive sexual experience before committing.

    女人在「婚姻市場」的數量大幅超越男性,所以男性得以在選對象時吹毛求疪,他們可以在許下承諾前,享受大量的性愛

  • Men are in a position to maximize their rewards while investing fewer resources.

    以男性的立場,他們利用小投資將利潤極大化

  • Why do men do this? Because they can. Here’s the thing:

    為什麼?因為他們有本錢!事情是這樣的

  • In the past, it really wasn’t the patriarchy that policed women’s relational interests. It was women.

    在過去,悍衛女人相關權益的其實不是父權社會,而是女人自己

  • But, this agreement, this unspoken pact to set a high market value of sex

    但這項協議,這種把性愛市價訂得很高的默契

  • has all but vanished.

    如今已消失無蹤

  • But in a brave new world where having sex no longer means babies and marriage has become optional,  

    在這美麗新世界,做愛不再意味著傳宗接代,婚姻只是個選項

  • the solidarity women once felt toward each other in the mating markethas dissolved.

    擇偶市場中,女人團結一致的情況已經瓦解

  • Women no longer have each other’s backs, on the contrary

    女性不再是彼此的靠山,相反地

  • theyre now each other’s competition.

    她們現在互為敵手

  • And when women compete for men, they tend to do so by appealing to what men want.

    當女人為了男人相互競爭,她們試圖取悅男人

  • Here’s where women are wrong about men:

    但是有一點她們錯了

  • Men are not actually afraid of commitment at all. While women are the gatekeepers when it comes to sex,

    男人其實一點也不害怕承諾,當女人在性愛上把關

  • the deal is that men are in the driver’s seat in the marriage market.

    男人反過來在婚姻市場上掌控主權

  • They can navigate it in exactly how they want to. And unlike women’s fertility, men’s

    他們可以輕易扭轉局勢,而不同於女人的生育率

  • virility doesn’t expire by 40, or 45, or 50, or even 60. So what’s the rush?

    男人的精氣到四、五、六十歲都很旺盛,所以急什麼呢?

  • Talk about having the upper hand! 
So... it should come as no surprise that

    看看誰佔上風吧!所以毫無意外地

  • the average age of first marriage in the United States continues to rise,

    美國人首次結婚的平均年齡持續上升

  • and that the share of Americans between the ages of 25-34 years old who are married is continuing to drop.

    介於25-34歲的已婚人數則持續下降

  • While there are certainly factors that contribute to each of those trends, the gender imbalance in a split mating market is a big one.

    這兩項趨勢形成的原因很多,但擇偶市場中的男女失衡是關鍵

  • Talk about a profound irony: by nearly every measure, young men are failing to adapt to contemporary life.

    天大的諷刺是,從各方面看來年輕男子應無法適應現代社會

  • When attractive women will still go to bed with you, life for young men

    當充滿魅力的女人仍願意跟你上床,年輕人的日子過得也不差

  • even those who are flounderingjust ain’t so bad.

    就連不是很優的男子也一樣

  • In reality, men tend to behave as well or as poorly as the women in their lives permit.

    現實生活中,男人似乎在生活表現上與女人相當

  • Economists say that collusionwomen working togetherwould be the most rational way to elevate themarket valueof sex.

    經濟學家說,女人同謀合作是提高性愛市價最明智的辦法

  • But there is little evidence of this happening among women today.

    但女人似乎沒有發展出這種現象

  • At least, not yet

    至少...還沒出現...

  • If women were squarely in charge of how their relationships transpired and demanded a “higher market pricefor the exchange of sex so to speak,

    如果女人能恰好掌控男女關係的發展,藉此提高性愛市價

  • we’d be seeingon average

    平均來說,我們將會預見

  • more impressive wooing efforts, greater male investment, longer relationships, fewer premarital partners,

    更熱烈的追求、更願意付出的男人、情感關係穩定、不婚伴侶減少

  • shorter cohabitations, and more marrying going on.

    同居時間縮短、步入婚姻者增加

  • For a woman to know what she wants in a relationship and to signal it clearly,

    女人清楚自己在感情中尋求什麼,並明確表達

  • especially if it’s different than what most men wantThis is her power in the economy.

    這是女人在性愛經濟中的力量,尤其當妳所期盼的與男人不同時

  •  But none of these things seem to be occurringnot nowat least

    但似乎這些事情都還沒發生,至少目前是這樣

  • Today, the economics of contemporary sexual relationships clearly favor men and what they

    如今,現代的性愛經濟很明顯對男性有利

  • want, even while what they are offering in the exchange has diminished.

    即使他們付出的代價逐漸減少

  • And it’s all thanks to supply, demand, and the long reach of a remarkable little pill.

    這一切全歸功於供給和需求,以及神奇小藥丸的深遠影響

  • Brought to you by the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture.

    本集節目由奧斯汀家庭文化研究協會贊助播出

Marriage rates in the U.S. have hit an historic low.

美國結婚率創下歷史新低

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