囧研究：男人才是“弱势群体”女人天生就比男人更强大

　　For millennia it has been the dividing line in the battle of the sexes. Women may be better at multi-tasking, less susceptible to ’man flu’ — but, physically, men are the stronger sex.

　　一千多年来，人们关于两性的争议得到了这样一些结论：女性可能更擅长从事多任务、更不易于患“人流感”——但是，男人的身体则更强壮。

　　And no wonder: on average, males are 6in taller than females and have twice the upper-body strength, as well as denser bones, stronger tendons and greater muscle mass.

　　也难怪：平均来看，男性要比女性高6英寸、上肢力量是女性的两倍、骨密度也更高、筋骨强健肌肉更多。

　　Wonder Woman may be taking cinemas by storm this summer, but it’s always Superman, with his rippling abs and bulging biceps, who saves the damsel in distress.

　　《神奇女侠》今夏可能席卷电影院，但是拯救落难美女的总是满身肌肉的超人。

　　However, this could be about to change. For a growing body of scientific study is turning centuries-old gender research on its head — by suggesting that women are, in fact, stronger than men.

　　但是，这一切可能都会发生改变。越来越多的研究正在彻底改变一个数个世纪以来都根深蒂固的观念——事实上，女性比男性更强大。

　　’We often think of males as being the tougher and more powerful sex,’ explains Angela Saini, author of Inferior, a ground-breaking new book which charts the scientists’ findings.

　　突破性著作《下等人(Inferior)》阐述了科学家们的发现，该书作者安吉拉.萨伊尼表示：“我们通常认为男性是更强大的性别。”

　　’But strength can be defined in different ways. When it comes to the most basic instinct of all — survival — women’s bodies tend to be better equipped than men’s.’

　　“但是力量可以用不同的方式来定义。在最基本的本能——生存方面，女性的身体要比男性更强大。”

　　From longevity and surviving illness to coping with trauma and managing pain, we investigate the surprising ways in which women really are the stronger sex...

　　从长寿和生存疾病，到应付创伤和处理疼痛方面，我们的调查惊人地发现女性真的更强大。

　　Girls’ edge over boys doesn’t just start at birth — it’s there in the womb. Scientists at the University of Adelaide say this may be because a mother’s placenta behaves differently depending on the gender of her baby.

　　女孩对男孩的优势并不是出生之后才有，而是从子宫就开始。据阿得雷德大学的科学家表示，这可能是因为母亲的胎盘对不同性别的婴儿表现行为不同。

　　Boys are bigger and grow faster in the womb, which can place a strain on the placenta and lead to under-nourishment of the foetus and high blood pressure in the mother.

　　男孩在子宫里更大、生长更快，这会对胎盘造成压力，导致胎儿营养不良和母亲高血压。

　　’With female foetuses, the placenta does more to maintain the pregnancy and increase immunity against infections,’ adds Angela Saini. ’Why this is, nobody understands.’

　　安吉拉.萨伊尼指出：“而对于女婴来说，胎盘能够更多地维持妊娠和增强抗感染，但是却没有人知道这到底是为什么。”

　　One possible explanation, she says, is that biologically, male foetuses are slightly more common than female ones. ’The difference . . . might simply be nature’s way of correcting the balance.’

　　据她表示，一个可能的解释是，从生物学角度上来说，男婴的数量略多于女婴。“这种差异，可能只是自然纠正平衡的方法。”