Summer has just begun, and the position at the top of the 2020 entertainment industry pyramid has lost its suspense. Suddenly, everyone in the public opinion field was talking about how "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves", an anti-aging variety show that was jokingly called "Youth Has You", made waves.
From a traffic variety show, some people come to learn workplace survival, some people come to study social discourse, and more people simply appreciate (hunting) and rewarding mature actresses with frozen age...
If it doesn't work out, it's all secondary. Compared with the idol manufacturing of "uniform standard youth invincible" and reading "decent and no personality", the story of middle-aged people chasing after a thousand sails is another dream of the observer shining into reality, and the entertainment pleasure is multiplied.
There is also a voice commenting that the rich and beautiful "sister" in the entertainment industry is too far away from the ordinary middle-aged women who struggle in the workplace and survival vortex in daily life, and the production idea still follows the very secular "Mu Qiang" logic.
But isn't the image of women supposed to be more diverse, and women's lives can have more possibilities? All they need is more to be seen and understood, to have the opportunity to prove that "I can."
The breadth and profundity of "sister learning" is by no means limited to the entertainment industry.
When the sisters really "rode the wind and waves", the 21st century has not yet arrived - from 1989 to 1990, the British girl Tracey Edwards convened the world's first professional all-female regatta team, which successfully completed in the top circumnavigation of the world, proving that "women can do it".
Thirty years later, their story, on the big screen, became the best documentary at the 91st National Critics Association Awards. The film is named after their participating ships at the time, "Maiden", Chinese literal translation of "Sailing Girl" - perhaps Captain Tracy would like another translation: "Turning the Tide".
"If you really have the determination, you will definitely do it." It's just that you've never insisted on anything in your life." This sentence in the film is very heartfelt.
"Because I'm a girl, you won't allow me to sail?"
Documentaries, especially sports figure history documentaries, are basically formatted template operations - character interviews + historical images, and "Female Turning the Tide" is no exception, in terms of shooting skills, there is nothing outstanding.
But in the face of a vague and rough historical picture, the producer's excellence lies in the narrative balance: a documentary on the theme of women does not show "feminism", but more praises "freedom of life".
"Are you a 'feminist'?" In the historical picture, in response to this question from reporters, Tracy's answer is: "I hate the word 'feminist', I just like to be allowed to do what I want to do." I don't understand why, because I'm a girl, I'm not allowed to sail? It's time for men to realize that women can enjoy sailing as much as they do, and they're just as good at it."
The Whitebride Round the World Regatta, renamed volvo Ocean Race in 2001, is known as the World's Three Major Sailing Events along with the America's Cup Regatta and the Olympic Regatta. With a total distance of 30,000 to 50,000 nautical miles, the race is the longest sailing race on earth.
Such a round-the-world race tests not only the ability and skill of the crew to drive the sailboat, but also the endurance, determination and consumption. Due to physiological and historical reasons, men have always dominated this competition, but Tracy did not believe it.
"Sailing makes women go away." In the thousands of years of human navigation, women can only have one subordinate position at most. "They can be passengers or nurses on a ship, or wives waiting at the docks for a seafarer's husband to come home, and their role in sea world is necessary but also despised." "The Beauty of the Sea" writes: "Women in marine culture mostly appear in an ironic image, and according to the rules of ancient ships, the appearance of women on ships is an ominous sign." In ancient China, there was also a folk proverb that "there are female companions, and navigation is not good".
When superstition and barbarism were replaced by science and civilization, by the 1980s, this stereotyped, unabashed sexism was preserved above the ocean, not even just on the ocean.
In the sports competitions of that time, women were at an absolute disadvantage, no one paid attention to, no one cared, no one was welcomed – this kind of practical obstacle was not limited to the time, until now the "transparent ceiling" that still pervades all parts of society is no longer necessary to repeat.
But when a reporter interviewed why she had the idea of "all-female crew competition," Therese replied, "Well, [don't try it] people will argue." Men will say they can't do it, women will say they can do it, and the argument goes on."
Simple and straightforward, it doesn't matter "women's rights" or "equal rights", it is to prove that "I can". In the face of doubt and injustice, it is my right to prove myself; it is also my right to choose when and how to prove it.
The life song of "Problem Girl"
In an interview in the documentary, Tracy Edwards is no longer young, her hair is frosted white, and her long ponytail has been cut into short ear-length hair, but her eyes are still clear and full of alertness. The wrinkles on the face are like maps, engraved with the trajectory left by the early years of circumnavigation of the world.
Before becoming a seafaring hero, she was a "problem girl" – she became grumpy and aggressive because she could not get along with her alcoholic and irritable stepfather. At the age of 15, Tracy dropped out of school and ran away from home.
In this wandering, Tracy traveled from Wales to Greece, working as a waiter in a bar, living a life of frequent hangovers and precariousness, "I remember being lonely, I had the urge to go home, but I didn't".
A man drinking in a bar changed Tracy's life. He made an invitation to the 17-year-old: "I am the captain of a chartered sailboat, my waitress is no longer dry, are you willing to take over?" 」
The next day, Tracy boarded a boat with him, crossed the Atlantic for the first time, and learned how to steer the right way. When the storm came, she had to tie up to the rudder in order not to be swept away by the waves; seasick and kept vomiting on the barrel, but she still said, "I like sailing." For me, sailing is freedom, all freedom."
With the persistence and even stubbornness that came with love, she next helped board the Atlantic Privateer, becoming the first female member in the history of the British fleet to complete the Whitebladd Round the World Regatta, although she was only a cook.
Tracy became famous and was widely publicized for daring to participate in the Circumnavigation of the Globe, but her heart was still full of reluctance: sailing still belonged to men, she was more like an ornament, an accidental appearance.
"I want to [continue] to travel around, but I don't want to do laundry and cook for a bunch of men." If they don't let me, I have to do it myself."
She decided to form an all-female team to compete.
However, in the 1980s, a white-bred regatta cost about six million dollars. Tracy spent two years running around hoping to raise the money, but to no avail. The female crew members who had previously been attracted to her were also difficult to maintain because of livelihood problems.
Objectively speaking, the difficulties encountered by Tracy and her team stem from gender discrimination and disdain, but more are not fundamentally different from other participating teams, nothing more than money and people - the way to solve the difficulties is not derived from gender.
All the burden was on Tracy, who had mortgaged her house in exchange for a tattered, rusty old sailing ship. The captain and her crew, some became plumbers, some became wiremakers, and they remodeled themselves in exchange for a "war" ship that could compete, named "Maiden".
King Hussein of Jordan became the one to help Tracy: Royal Jordanian Airlines sponsored her round-the-world regatta program, funding her to cover the expenses of a year of circumnavigating the globe.
On September 2, 1989, all the female crews of the "Maiden" crossed the route from the Solent Strait in the United Kingdom and began a 33,000-nautical-mile round-the-world race.
After dozens of days of sailing on the vast expanse of the sea, "smooth" is the most unlikely thing to happen, and the danger is always there - two of the convoys participating together fell into the water in the Southern Ocean, and one was buried at the bottom of the sea.
The Maiden also encountered unintended dangers. In the second half of the Australia-New Zealand stage, the intense battle situation overwhelmed Tracy, and she could not sleep for two or three days in order to keep catching up with the ships ahead.
Towards the finish line, the mast suddenly burst and the cabin entered the water, and Tracy recalled that it even felt like "our hull was being split by these waves". Fortunately, the "Maiden" persisted to the end, otherwise once the ship was abandoned, those previous efforts would soon be wiped out.
"We respect each other, we trust each other, what a great journey we have come through together!" Although winning two stages, the "Maiden" did not achieve its goal of winning the championship. No one complained, and after a little loss, it was finally the peace that got what was desired.
"I can" ≠ "I must"
After the completion of the "Maiden" to the finish line of Southampton, England, Tracy is full of emotions every time she remembers it.
"I saw a little rubber boat on the horizon with a couple of kids in it. The child is not very old, probably around 12 years old, and then more and more boats appear. Nothing was foreshadowing."
The "Maiden" was greeted by dozens of civilian ships that heard the news. Everyone on board threw flowers and kisses to celebrate the return of the "maidens" on the Maiden. The ship's whistle sounded like a burst of thunder.
No one cares if they win or lose, and this "impossible" game has more meaning than winning.
Although Tracy rejected the label of "feminist", what she practiced and influenced future generations was the neglected point of the increasingly radicalized gender movement: the struggle for power stemmed from the self-awareness, that is, knowing what she could do and determining what she wanted to do.
Equal rights are "I can", not "I must"; "I want", not "you want".
"I can" let the child choose to follow the mother's surname, because I like, not "I must" use the title right to fight to prove the dominance of the marriage relationship; "I can" freely decide to marry and have children, not "I must" marry late and not marry, to cut off the so-called "marriage donkey"; "I can" grasp my body shape and face, not "I must" be obese or bodybuilding, in order to break the inherent "white and young" aesthetic.
As Tracy did, because I love sailing, "I can" build fleets and ride the waves. Instead, because I'm a woman, "I have to" build a fleet to beat men. The essence of gender is not opposition, but to create more space that can carry the expression of "I can" wishes.
Gender aside, this group of "sisters riding the wind and waves" represents a group of ordinary people, overcoming unimaginable hardships to achieve their dreams and practicing their beliefs:
"If others tell you that these things cannot be done, and you do not do them, then how can human beings achieve something?" 」
This sentence, both men and women.
Written by: Sasha
Editor: Shuai Zhang
Proofreader: Xu Jing