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Or look at any of the women's magazines. There, as Bernard De Voto once pointed out, advertising begins as poetry in the front pages and ends as pharmacopoeia and therapy in the back pages. The poetry of the front matter is the dream of perfect beauty. This is the baby skin that must be hers. These, the flawless teeth. This, the perfumed breath she must exhale. This, the sixteen-year-old figure she must display at forty, at fifty, at sixty, and forever.
或者看看任何一本女性雜志。正如伯納德•德沃托曾經指出的那樣，雜志前幾頁上的廣告詩情畫意，而在后面幾頁卻如藥典和治療方法一樣結束。前幾頁的詩情畫意是完美美女的 夢想:這該是她擁有的嬰兒般的肌膚;這些該是她完美無瑕的牙齒;這該是她呼出的芬芳氣息； 這該是她保持到40歲、50歲、60歲甚至到永遠的16歲少女般的身材。
Once past the vaguely uplifting fiction and feature articles, the reader finds the other face of the dream in the back matter. This is the harness into which Mother must strap herself in order to display that perfect figure. These, the chin straps she must sleep in. This is the salve that restores all, this is her laxative, these are the tablets that melt away fat, these are the hormones of perpetual youth, these are the stockings that hide varicose veins.
一旦讀完這些隱約讓人振奮的小說和專題文章，讀者在雜志最后幾頁就會發現夢想的另外一面：這是媽媽們必須要束上的塑身帶，以展示完美的身材；這些是她們睡覺時必須戴著的下巴托；這是可以修復一切的藥膏；這是通便劑；這些是可以溶解脂肪的藥片；這些是可以使人永葆青春的激素；這些是可以遮掩靜脈曲張的長襪。
Obviously no half-sane person can be completely persuaded either by such poetry or by such pharmacopoeia and orthopedics. Yet someone is obviously trying to buy the dream as offered and spending billions every year in the attempt. Clearly the happiness-market is not running out of customers, but what is it trying to buy?
顯而易見，即使心智不健全的人也不會完全相信這些詩境或是這些藥典和矯形術。然而有人顯然正在竭力購買這些廣告所兜售的美夢，并為此每年花費數十億美元。顯然，這種幸福的市場上從不會缺乏顧客，但他們在竭力購買的是什么呢？
