全国原创演讲季军“身材羞耻”如何另辟蹊径，打动所有人？

"All human wisdom is summed up in these two words, Wait and hope。人类全部智慧就包含在两个词中：等待和希望。“

来自上海交大附中IB课程中心12年级的邹蕙如Vickie，从小就读于体制内学校，没有接受过专业教练的辅导，四年级一年的海外留学经历和小时候新概念英语的学习，便是她全部的国际教育背景。

采访Vickie时，她引用了《基督山伯爵》中的这句话，令NSDA君尤其印象深刻。她说，这是她最喜欢的一部文学作品，而这句话也伴随了她许久。

她自认为并不是一个在课外活动的安排上很有目的性和计划性的人，本身性格也并非很爱展现自己，但英语演讲就像是生活中充满阳光的一部分、一个令她得以拓展的平台，将这种“等待和希望”的智慧注入她的生命里。

NSDA君很好奇，这样一位“非常规”选手，是如何依靠自己的力量，一步步从六年级开始接触英语演讲，直到最终自信地站上全国总决赛的舞台？

在今天的采访故事中，Vickie从找寻演讲主题，摸索演说技巧，确定演讲框架，培养演说自信等方面，聊了聊自己独一无二的心得与经历。

获奖经历

2020 NSDA春季上海地区原创演讲季军

2020 NSDA全国总决赛原创演讲季军

以“Body Shaming”为选题

源自亲身经历

1

原创演讲的比赛没有规定选题，从头到尾都需要选手自己的思考。所以Vickie一直想要找寻这样一个主题——并不完全局限于她自身，具有广泛认同度的话题，但同时也不能离她自身太过遥远，不便于切身挖掘。

对于Vickie而言，从小在人际交往上花的心思是比其他人多的。她提起了自己在初中时的“尴尬”故事：班上有两个女生身材都比较丰满，一个是她，还有一个是另一位女生。初中刚开学的那两个月，班主任经常把她们两个的名字搞混。她敏感地察觉到，这是因为身材上的相似。

“人都是很‘视觉’的，所以交往上会受到这样的影响。这是我在人际中花费心思最大的一个问题。所以我想到，也许我可以谈谈与我的经历相关的‘body shaming’。”

近两年来，身材羞耻逐渐成为网络热议话题。拒绝因身高、肤色、身材而产生的体貌羞耻心理，改造审美单一化的文化观念的女性主义也开始赢得更多人的关注与共情。说实话，这算是一个比较“讨喜”的话题。

但对于Vickie而言，她并不想在演讲中针砭时弊，“鞭策”自己的听众来反应社会问题。她说：“我只是，想讲一讲自己的故事。”

把电视机当听众

从自我抒发到训练成习惯

2

Vickie所在学校是没有演讲和辩论教练的。最开始参加演讲比赛时，由于没有任何经验，她只能去上网搜索。通过多看海外的原创演讲冠亚军的比赛，从他们的演讲当中她最终摸索出了一套属于自己的演讲“套路”。

比如，演讲开始时如何做手势；比如，观察他们的整篇演讲中会分成几个部分，每个部分中一般会提供两个例子：一个个人经历+一个社会例子……

“我会摸索着比对那些冠亚军有哪些共同之处，演讲的框架也在这样的学习中逐渐定下来了。”

Vickie还有这样一个“怪癖”：独自在家时，会在家里对着电视机的黑屏幕讲话。她会设想，如果有评委在或者有观众在听，那么就要讲得更流畅。这样没有稿子的即兴练习伴随了她很久。

这样习惯的由来也与自身性格有关：“每当我看完一个电影或者读完一本书之后，我会很想抒发自己的所思所想，但是我的听众比如同学，并不会耐心听我讲完”，她解释道，“我并不会注重于抒发自己的意见；这不代表我没有自己的想法。所以我觉得演讲相当于一个保留自我意见的宣泄方式。”

在她四年级的时候，Vickie去美国上了一年学，回来后她很害怕会逐渐失去这样标准的美式发音，所以会一直看美剧练习。

源于对自我抒发的喜爱与习惯，Vickie的演讲初心就这样培养起来了。

与听众建立联系

“说服性演讲”如何炼成？

3

全国总决赛是在8月。之前的5月，Vickie在准备学校的AP考试。AP有一门课是英语语言与写作，这门课给了她很多机会去分析诸多著名演说家的演讲稿。从中，Vickie学习到，在演讲的时候要注意自己的听众。

“这门课让我领略了一些著名政治家、女性运动积极分子等领域演说大师的演讲技巧。他们非常注意自己的听众背景和听众心理。我开始在乎我写稿子以及演讲的时候，听众可能会出现的心理活动，我开始从单纯的个人抒发转变为打造一种‘说服性演讲’，更多地打动、说服听众。”

学到这样的思路的她，在自己总决赛的演讲稿中准备了一个关于“牙套”的例子。“我的听众很大一部分是十几岁的学生和一些年轻的老师，他们戴牙套的比例会比较高，感知其中‘痛苦’的可能也会比较大。”

“我们为什么要整牙？”，“整牙的目的是什么？”——让听众觉得他们跟演说者正在同样一个处境里面，这是一个和观众建立联系的演讲思路。

另外，Vickie说她和很多人一样，很喜欢奥巴马的演讲。她很向往那种极有说服力的声音，听奥巴马演讲，会觉得演说是一件有魔力的事情。她相信，在未来的求学和工作之路上，这都是一个强有力的工具。

“等待与希望”

文学给予了她信念

4

谈及演说的动力，Vickie再次提到了自己妈妈的情感支持：“她从小就希望我可以通过演讲来树立自信，她希望我能相信自己，在真的要展示自我的时候，能够给观众呈现出一个好的风貌。”Vickie的父母对她的比赛并没有过多参与。但是默默的关心与守护，使Vickie得以全身心地保守演讲的初心。

“我不想让他们失望的，如果他们听到我犯错误了，我会很紧张，然后一切就都搞砸了，所以我就跟他说我要讲10分钟，期间不要进来。”参加线上赛的时候，Vickie让父母在安抚好家里的小狗不要发出声响，除此之外，文稿的内容、演讲练习，父母都没有多余的参与。

除了外在动力，Vickie也表达了自身对于演讲强烈的向往。演说是这样一种具有“魔力”的事物，演说者的口吻、音调，具有说服力的“声音”，都是她所钟爱的存在。

“这是我的一个追求，”Vickie补充道，“我有听播客、广播的长期习惯。我心里是很想拥有那种很有说服力的声音的，就像我很喜欢奥巴马的演讲。”

与喜欢听播客类似，Vickie也热爱着文学，虽然她有点羞于表达这一点。在忙碌、紧张的高三，她仍不忘在网上上一门关于世界文学的哈佛慕课来为自己“充电”，“现在想想，这种时候买网课并不是一个很明智的决定，但也还是坚持上完了。”历史与文学的力量陪伴着她成长，最终化为一种内驱力，浸润、鼓励着她，在原创演讲的路上不断进步。

“我很喜欢《基督山伯爵》里面的一句话：‘人类全部智慧就包含在两个词中：等待和希望。’”在一开始演讲时，Vickie没有任何经历，但是“等待，让我沉静下来，相信厚积薄发；希望，让我相信付出总有回报，永不放弃。所以在我身上，这句话特别特别重要。”

最后，由于Vickie是一位纯粹依靠自身摸索学习而获得全国季军的原创演讲选手，我们特意问了她对于新手小白的建议，她总结了两点：

第一，一定要讲自己的故事，不要编撰。可能很多同学总是觉得原创演讲一定要讲很“宏大”的事情，要反映社会问题，要“鞭策”自己的观众。但其实不用有这种负担，真诚就足够了，真诚是不会带来表演感的。

Vickie说，她最终的理想，是希望自己“像一个在夜里给很多人讲故事的老奶奶”。她很喜欢把自己想象成这样的形象，大家于是也会很用心地倾听。

第二，要建立真正的自信。很多人都有这样的经历：站在台上，心里想着自己一定要自信，反而更加紧张，从而表现不佳。

Vickie如何克服这种障碍？她说：“我一般会进行自我暗示——我没有问题，我的观众也不会觉得我有问题的。于是身上就会自然流露那种自信的气场。”所以，建立真正的自信，其实也是自我说服的过程。

以下为全国总决赛时Vickie的原创演讲稿

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Looking Perfect

Vickie

A few months ago at a concert in Miami, Florida, where thousands of people gathered for a live pop music feast, a short video played on the big screen of the star stripping herself down slowly and presenting her body honestly to the crowd. That, was the18-year-old musician, Billie Eilish. Instead of wearing evening gowns/tights/or/any outfit that shows any skin (exaggerate), she wears baggy, seemingly unattractive clothes all the time. Why? Billie is making a protest, a refusal of societal judgements on women’s shapes. As statistics from the national bullying prevention center in the UK suggests, 94 percent of teenage girls have been body-shamed. It’s time to realize that we are immersed in an atmosphere permeated with that elusive hostility, and our children are bearing it on their shoulders. And that’s my concern today: body shaming.

So join me as we first examine how it distorts the outside relationships as well as inside thinkings of people in daily lives, second, how we respond to it, and finally, we’ll look at some solutions that can hopefully construct a redefinition.

Body shaming is nothing new. Bias regarding the understanding of beauty has been so deeply ingrained in human society and culture; and its impacts are not just felt by celebrities or super models; body shaming affects your wives, your sisters, and your daughters as well. I could never forget what happened in junior high. I was the heaviest girl in my class, and when the boys wanted to make fun of each other, they accused each other of being attracted to me, as if they are manipulating a weapon of humiliation- to be attracted to a fat girl, who doesn’t harm anybody, gets decent grades on all her tests, and has her own passion for public speaking. I was shocked upon hearing it, then angry, and finally dejected for there’s nothing I could immediately do to change their conversation. I couldn’t stop them or lose weight overnight. I felt powerless. I’m smart enough to solve lots of problems, but I can’t solve this one on my own. Who could’ve imagine that inside classrooms and on playgrounds, words from innocent boys can cultivate doubt and fear in a young girl’s heart. And I’m sure, that I’m not alone.

Yet that doubt doesn’t leave as school ends at 5 p.m., this alarming consciousness stays and you carry it everywhere as you question yourself each time when making even the most trivial decision with your body, whether its during running in the streets, or attempting to reach anything on top shelves. The consequence isn’t just about that uncomfortable moment when body shaming happens, because it penetrates your mind, and attacks your mental health second by second. Three-time Grammy award winning rapper Lizzo says it best in her tweet, that loving yourself doesn’t happen overnight, while self-hate is years of internalized programming resulting from external influences. Indeed, the systemic concept of beauty from the surroundings is shaping the way we view ourselves and, others as well.

I don’t have the perfect body. THERE, I admit it. However, I don’t have eating-disorders, I work hard just like everyone in this room, hoping for a better life. Now, I’m a teenage girl, I have problems with my mom, but something happened one day and got me thinking. One evening, my mom walked in and saw me sitting in front of my desk, and all of a sudden a fight started. It turns out she is not satisfied with my body. She’s worried. She’s afraid that I might not find an optimal job, or a good husband. It seems that all the work I’ve being doing for the past 16 years could be on the same scale with having an attractive body. That’s why she thinks it’s so urgent for me to reshape myself. I’m not going to lie here. I was mad hearing that all my effort on my studies would be useless unless I went on a diet - what she said subverted my plans and dreams. But I love my mother, and I know she loves me. Her words were said with such sincerity, without any intention to hurt me, and yet injected with bias, coming from the person closest to me on earth. What made me feel sad and diminished was not what she said, or that she’s the person telling me this, but the fact that what she said might be true, that appearance, and the figure of your body, are such conclusive factors that when it comes to employment and interviews, and the start of romantic relationships, your shape, can decide the future for you. That seems to be a true principle the world operates under.

And our children respond to that principle in silence. Like many of my peers I wear dental braces for a better look for future - a phrase ambiguous yet intimidating that parents and commercials use to get the kids to the dentists. I’m still wearing them! This lovely treatment for my teeth has been a real blast. That’s means it hurts. To make space, the orthodontist took out one of my front teeth, and the tooth left alone in my mouth cuts my tongue, my facial muscle feels sore. I’m going through the pain most teenagers do as my teeth are pulled slowly to the “right place”. The process was never easy for anyone. When I typed in “how many kids wear braces”, the webpage from a clinic called Kennell orthodontics at the very top of Google’s search result says that over one million teenagers get braces every year, followed so naturally by one sentence that makes me shudder, “Not everyone is born with a perfect smile·” I can only ask myself, what is a perfect smile? It seemed to be a widely accepted fact that people who are born without a textbook shape of their teeth are expected to correct themselves into a way can be considered “looks perfect”. Who is looking? It’s us. We have created an oppressive system without knowing its existence, and we leave that one million teenagers to bend their teeth with expensive metal strings so they can live up to that system’s expectation.

We’ve been struggling for a while. In 1960s, the American poet Sheila Black wrote in her piece “what you mourn”, “the body they tried so hard to fix, straighten, was simply mine, and I loved it as you love your own country· ” It’s time we do the same, to have that noble respect and approval for our bodies as well as others’. And this fight is so far from over.

We are now living in a time when society is in a sprint towards the peak of its efficiencies, where very individual struggles to achieve their full potential, yet in a survey among English girls in 2016, 47% of teenager say the way they look holds them back. That situation awaits to be addressed. Dr. Heather Widdows from Psychology Today magazine says,“ We know we are hurt, and we know we are uncomfortable, but we find it hard to say why.” - that invisible parasite that skews our judgement is bound to decease, and we begin by looking at every individual from a different light. A better one. We begin by focusing on logic, kindness, and power that lies beneath our shell. Because as written by Greek author plutarch, what’s achieved inwardly will change outer reality. and that person you love, whether she’s your daughter, sister, or your best friend, she can grow up and be proud of herself, fully, completely, and be able to love, and run, and speak up, without that haunting fear. Now wouldn’t that, be a perfect look?

Thank you.

采访 | Vivi

口述 | 邹蕙如

撰文、编辑 | 雨辰

来源 | NSDA全美演讲与辩论联盟