Here’s a familiar sounding story:

这是一个熟悉的听起来的故事：

A new ‘technology’ comes along and is initially dominated by a small clique of ‘in-the-know’, mostly male, often bearded, ‘tech geeks’.

一种新的“技术”应运而生，并最初由一小部分“知道的”群体主导，这些群体通常是男性，通常是胡须，是“技术怪胎”。

Quite soon that ‘technology’ goes mainstream and is adopted by women and men, young and old, families, couples and single for all sorts of new and innovative needs.

很快，“技术”成为主流，并被男女老少，家庭，夫妇和单身人士所采用，以满足各种新的创新需求。

And then some of those original guys get a bit grumpy because things aren’t like they were in the good ol’ days™.

然后，其中一些原始人变得脾气暴躁，因为事情并不像过去那样好 。

And some of them behave badly.

而且其中一些表现不好。

Sound familiar?

听起来有点熟？

Gamers? Programmers?

游戏玩家？ 程序员？

No. I’m talking about….

不，我在说…。

电报 (The Telegraph)

Looking back now, it’s impossible for us to understand the sense of gobsmacked wonder that the invention of the telegraph caused in the mid 1800s.

现在回想起来，我们不可能理解1800年代中期电报机的发明引起的惊奇。

At a time when the word ‘technology’ meant ‘steam-powered’, the concept of invisibly, instantaneously communicating across hundreds of miles was indistinguishable from pure magic.

在“技术”一词意为“蒸汽动力”的时代，在数百英里范围内进行无形，即时通信的概念与纯魔术是无法区分的。

Samuel Morse: 1850’s Tech Hipster?

塞缪尔·莫尔斯(Samuel Morse)：1850年的技术时髦？

But as any successful tech tends to do, the user base expanded quickly in both size and diversity.

但是，随着任何成功的技术趋向于发展，用户群的规模和多样性都Swift扩大。

And since operating a telegraph machine was a learnable skill where size and strength were no real benefit, it was a job that attracted a lot of young, smart, single, often working-class women.

而且由于操作电报机是一项可学习的技能，尺寸和强度并没有真正的好处，因此这项工作吸引了许多年轻，聪明，单身且经常上班的女性。

This meant that many early city telegraph services became the first offices staffed by a predominantly female, technically-literate information workers.

这意味着许多早期的城市电报服务机构成为第一批由女性，具有技术素养的信息工作者组成的办公室。

This had some interesting flow on effects.

这对效果产生了一些有趣的影响。

社会道德沦丧？ (The Moral Decay of the Society?)

Firstly, companies were happy to employ women – they were paid less – but generally pressured them to resign when they married. This ‘woman’s place is in the home’ idea got a lot of momentum as former Civil War soldiers began returning to the workforce.

首先，公司很乐意雇用妇女-她们的薪水较低-但通常迫使她们结婚后辞职。 随着前南北战争士兵开始重返工作岗位，这个“女人在家中”的想法大受欢迎。

There is no doubt that many 1800’s men were threatened by the concept of women that weren’t financially reliant on a father or husband. This fear played out in many ways.

毫无疑问，许多1800年代的男人受到不经济依赖父亲或丈夫的女性观念的威胁。 这种恐惧以多种方式表现出来。

Some lashed out petulantly. Male telegrapher would transmit profanities over the wires designed to make female operators feel uncomfortable. In 1875 the Chicago Western Union office dismissed operator Ed Agnell after listening in on his expletive-laced transmissions to other offices.

有些猛烈抨击。 男性电报员会通过旨在使女性操作员感到不适的电线传送亵渎言论。 1875年，芝加哥西联汇款办事处听取了他对其他办事处的粗俗描述，将其解雇。

Others spread rumour and innuendo about the ‘immoral conduct’ of female co-workers – a particularly devastating attack in the era of Victorian social values.

其他人则散布关于女同事“不道德行为”的谣言和影射，这是维多利亚时代社会价值观时代的一次毁灭性袭击。

Women were also excluded from union membership for many years. At an 1865 vote to admit women to the National Telegraphic Union, the Boston delegate, a Mr. Stover claimed

多年以来，妇女也被排除在工会会员之外。 1865年，波士顿代表在接受女性投票加入美国国家电讯联盟的投票中，斯托弗先生声称

..as operators they (women) are no honor to the profession. … the result is constantly making blunders to such an extent that I know every telegraphic superintendent .. are weeding them out. I trust we shall do nothing to bring them into the union’.

..作为操作员，他们(女性)对该行业不感到荣幸。 …结果不断使错误变得如此严重，以至于我知道每位电讯主管都将其淘汰。 我相信我们将不采取任何行动使他们加入工会。

When immediately rebuked by conference organisers, Mr. Stover went on to assert that while there were a very small number of good female telegraph operators, the business skills required to achieve this level of proficiency were not proper “womanly” behavior, and inferred that any women that DID succeed must not be a proper woman.

当会议组织者立即斥责时，斯托弗先生断言，尽管只有极少数优秀的女电报员，但达到这种熟练水平所需的业务技能却不是适当的“女性化”行为，并推断任何DID成功的女性一定不是合适的女性。

What a charming fellow. *sigh*

多么迷人的家伙。 *叹*

Again he was strongly rebuked by both men and women, but we’d have to believe Stover wasn’t alone in his views.

再次，他被男人和女人都强烈谴责，但是我们必须相信，斯托弗在他看来并不孤单。

There were also genuine arguments put forward that the telegraph was leading to the moral downfall of society. Letters to newspapers warned that poor, innocent, young women risked being tricked into marrying scoundrels and villains over the telegraph wire.

也有真正的论点提出电报正在导致社会道德沦丧。 给报纸的信警告说，贫穷，无辜的年轻妇女冒着被骗到用电报线嫁给无赖和恶棍的风险。

I didn’t say it was a plausible argument – but that’s what they claimed.

我并不是说这是一个合理的论点，但这就是他们所声称的。

Regardless of this ever-present threat of malevolent marriage, women didn’t seem to be discouraged from entering the industry. By 1920 there were nearly 17,000 women telegrapher working across the US, making it the third most common employment (behind domestic services and teaching).

无论这种恶意婚姻的威胁如何，妇女似乎都没有灰心丧气。 到1920年，全美国有近17,000名女电报员在工作，成为第三大最普遍的工作(仅次于家庭服务和教学)。

有线的爱 (Wired Love)

There was also a certain amount of awe and fascination for those who ‘controlled the wires’ so telegraph operators took up an important place in the pop culture of the late 1800s.

对于那些“控制电线”的人也有一定的敬畏和迷恋，因此电报操作员在1800年代后期的流行文化中占据了重要的位置。

Railway Stories: The ‘Girl Op’

铁路故事：“女童”

The telegraph office provided daily opportunities for an eligible young bachelorette to come into contact with young businessmen, and dime store novels often centered around the adventures of sassy, modern ‘girl ops’.

电报办公室每天为合格的年轻单身汉提供与年轻商人接触的机会，而毛钱商店的小说通常以时髦，现代的“女孩行动”冒险为中心。

In 1880, Ella Cheever Thayer, a working telegrapher, published what must be the first novel concerning a cyber-romance – ‘Wired Love’ is the story of two telegraphers who fall in love without ever meeting in real life.

1880年，工作的电报员Ella Cheever Thayer出版了第一本关于网络浪漫的小说-“有线之恋”是两个电报员坠入爱河却从未在现实生活中相遇的故事。

So what can we take from all that?

那么我们能从中得到什么呢？

Perhaps I’ll just finish with the words of Lewis H. Smith, the editor of the NTU’s Telegrapher periodical magazine in 1865 and a very progressive fellow for his time:

也许我会用刘易斯·史密斯(Lewis H.Smith)的话来结束，他是1865年南大《电讯报》期刊的编辑，他当时是一个非常进步的家伙。

“If men and women could change places, how think you the former would come out? If we were hampered and excluded as women have been for centuries, where would be our boasted superiority?”

“如果男人和女人可以改变地方，那么您认为前者会出来吗？ 如果我们像妇女一样受到阻碍和排斥，已经有几个世纪了，那么我们自夸的优势在哪里呢？”

Smith attracted flak from the NTU rank and file for his position, but never backed away from them.

史密斯(Smith)吸引了来自南大(NTU)职位的人选，但从未退缩。

So, here’s a salute to the eloquent voice of Mr. Lewis H. Smith! And another to all Lewises since.

因此，这是对刘易斯·史密斯先生雄辩的声音的致敬！ 此后对所有刘易斯都如此。

翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/dots-dashes-dudes-behaving-badly/