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Finance and econimics
商業報道
Barbie at 50
芭比50年
In the pink
風韻猶存
The versatile pink princess has moved with the times
千面女郎 與時共進
Mulling another career change
考慮職業生涯的另一次改變
FROWNED upon by feminists but fought over by five-year-olds, Barbie has been a victim of controversy as much as fashion ever since her birth, 50 years ago this month.
1959年3月9日，從誕生之日起就一邊作為時尚寵兒被5歲兒童爭奪而飽受爭議，一邊受到女權主義者的不滿。
The charge-sheet against the pint-sized piece of plastic is long.
這個塑料小人的罪行真是罄竹難書。
She teaches the supremacy of looks over substance;
她過分推崇外貌重于內涵；
she stereotypes outdated gender roles;
她刻意強調過時的性別差異；
she celebrates an impossible body ideal;
她以超完美身材為榮，
and she spreads platinum hair, plastic limbs and a nauseating shade of pink into households from Honolulu to Hamburg.
她把天生的金發，塑料四肢，令人厭惡的粉紅色調從檀香山傳到漢堡的千萬戶家庭里。
Yet could it be that Barbie,
然而，這就是芭比娃娃，
far from being a relic from another era, is in fact a woman for our troubled economic times?
她并非是舊時的遺留，事實上，她也許是我們在舉步維艱的經濟時代里一名女性的形象？
For a start, she may benefit from having a strong, reassuring brand in a downturn.
首先，在經濟低迷期，她受益于擁有一個強勁的，令人放心的品牌。
Although global Barbie sales fell by 9% in 2008, battering profits at Mattel, her maker, Barbie topped the 2008 survey by America's National Retail Federation of the most popular girls' toys, relegating even the Nintendo Wii to fifth place.
2008年，雖然全球的芭比娃娃銷量下降了9 ％ ，消弱了她的生產商美泰公司的利潤，但在美國全國零售商聯合會評選的最受歡迎的女孩玩具中名列榜首，而任天堂Wii降級至第五位。
And she has just seen off her hipper rivals, the Bratz.
她送別了她競爭對手， 布拉茲娃娃。
After a long legal battle, a federal judge recently ordered their maker, MGA, to transfer the trademark rights to Mattel.
經過了漫長的官司，一位聯邦法官最近下令其制造商，垂詢MGA ，轉讓商標權給美泰。
Barbie is once again the queen of the toyshop.
芭比娃娃再次問鼎玩具商店。
In previous recessions toy sales held up reasonably well, as parents cut back elsewhere.
在以往經濟衰退歲月里，當父母削減其他地方的開支時，玩具銷售都相當不錯。
As the recession deepens, Barbie's conservative values are also back in vogue.
隨著經濟衰退的加深，芭比娃娃保守價值觀又重新流行。
Amid concern about rampant individualism and excess, she evokes a simpler, gentler era.
由于擔心個人主義猖獗泛濫，芭比開創了一個較簡單，溫和的時代。
And since staying in is the new going out, little girls will have more time for old-fashioned play.
暫時的停下來是為了迎接一個新的開始，小女孩們將有更多的時間與芭比娃娃玩耍。
Barbie also embodies career flexibility, a valuable attribute in difficult times.
其次，芭比娃娃也體現了職業生涯的靈活性，這在困難時期非常珍貴。
Having starting out as a fashion model in a black-and-white striped bathing suit, she tiptoed into other professions as fast as they were invented.
從一開始身穿黑白條紋游泳衣的時裝模特，她永遠踮著腳尖準備穿上高跟鞋到任何新的職業領域。
She was an air hostess in the 1960s as mass aviation took off, an aerobics instructor with leg-warmers in the 1980s, and even a black presidential candidate four years before Barack Obama.
在上世紀60年代，民用航空起飛時，她是一名空中小姐。80年代，她是一個穿著暖腿襪的健美操指導員。甚至四年前在奧巴馬當選前，她就是一名黑人總統候選人了。
Time for a new Barbie, dressed as a distressed-debt investor?
時間賦予了全新的芭比，下次她也許打扮成一名受債務困擾的投資者？
