视频会议中，男性更不喜欢被大家注视着，或者被人用目光进行隐形批判。但是对女性的调查没有显示这个问题。

In Lewis Carroll’s Victorian classic Through the Looking-Glass, Alice steps through a mirror into a world that is a reflection of the one she already exists in. This fictional account of a familiar yet topsy-turvy reality resonates with our lived experiences during the pandemic, where we must navigate work, school and leisure through a screen.
在刘易斯·卡罗尔的经典维多利亚风著作《爱丽丝梦游仙境2：镜中奇遇记》中，爱丽丝穿过一面镜子进入一个真实世界的映像世界。这段虚构的故事描述是一个既熟悉又颠倒的现实，与我们在新冠期间的生活经历不谋而合。 新馆期间，我们必须通过电脑屏幕才能与工作，学校和休闲场所接轨。

Using our combined observations of hundreds of Zoom meetings and scholarly insights from the fields of anthropology and psychology, we explore these questions to consider the transformative impact of digital platforms on our work environments and identities.
使用我们对数百次Zoom会议的综合观察，以及结合人类学和心理学领域的学术见解，我们希望能探索出各种各样的数字平台对我们的工作环境、自我认识的革命性影响。

As the legendary Aretha Franklin asks, “who’s zoomin’ who,” and why? And what does this tell us about our pandemic selves?
正如传奇歌手艾瑞莎·富兰克林的歌词，“是谁在（背后）默默注视谁”，为什么会这样？ 这对新冠中的我们又有怎样的启示？

Men prefer custom backgrounds 男性喜欢使用自定义背景

Based on our experiences in the new virtual world, men appear to far outnumber women in their preference for using specialty Zoom backgrounds. Popular choices include dungeons, outer space, landscapes and branded University images, the latter of which is common among men in positions of significant power. They sometimes switch designs during meetings, which can be humorous and reflect individual creativity.
在虚拟视频世界中，男性比女性更倾向于使用特别的视频背景。 最受欢迎的有地牢，外太空，风景和名牌大学背景，其中名牌大学背景尤其受身居要职的男性喜爱。 他们有时会在会议期间切换背景，表现自己的幽默和个人创造力。

In practical terms, the backgrounds may also be used to disguise cluttered or untidy workspaces. The lack of research on Zoom backgrounds makes determining the reasons behind this behaviour challenging to ascertain, but studies about gender and workspace culture may offer some clues.
从实用性出发，背景还可以用来掩盖乱糟糟或着不够整洁的工作环境。 对视频会议使用背景的研究不多，使得这种行为背后的原因很难被断定，但一些有关性别和工作场所文化的研究可能会成为线索。

The idea of men customizing their backgrounds to assert themselves in new spaces aligns with insights from gaming literature. Journalist Gabriel Winslow-Yost argues that gaming can be very grounding among male players given the collective nature of the virtual landscape and the definitive roles each player has.
男性在新环境中用自定义背景来维护自己形象，与游戏文学里的见解相吻合。 记者加布里埃尔·温斯洛-尤斯特认为，虚拟的景观和特定的角色扮演，能使男性玩家觉得游戏更真实。

Unlike video games, Zoom meetings are not usually perceived as leisurely activities or an escape from the “real” world. However, it could be that tech-savvy men are drawn to or comforted in some way by the opportunity to curate their digital environments using unique Zoom backgrounds, or as Winslow-Yost points out with regard to the online gaming world: “… they let us spend a little time in a different room.”
与电子游戏不同，视频会议通常不会被当成休闲活动或逃离“真实”世界的窗口。 但是，在懂技术的男性眼里，这可能是一个利用特别的视频背景来营造一个自己的数字化环境的机会，或者正如温斯洛-尤斯特对在线游戏世界指出的那样：“…（电子游戏）他们让我们在另一个房间里多花了一点时间。”

Designs by men 由男性打造

Women have been players in the corporate world for decades, but the style and appearance of many work environments remain quite masculine. This is reflected in the predominance of neutral tones like steely grey, along with Modernist décor and room temperatures two to three degrees lower than what women prefer.
数十年来，女性一直是行业各界的佼佼者，但许多工作环境的风格和外观仍然非常男性化。 这反映在：各种场合中大量使用的中性色调（如：钢灰色），现代主义装饰和比女性偏爱的温度通常低两到三度的室温上。

During the pandemic, the spatial distinctions between office and home are eroding because many of us now work in the places where we live. This transition may be especially challenging for men, who mostly prefer clear definitions between office and domestic spaces. In light of this, one suggestion is that men may use specialty Zoom backgrounds as a creative way to exact a sense of control over their new work environments that no longer reflect the masculine design they are used to.
新冠期间，许多人在居住的地方工作，办公室和家之间的空间感隔阂在逐渐模糊。 对于男性来说，这种变化尤其具有挑战性，因为男性更喜欢把工作和居住的空间明确分隔开来。 在此基础上，一种说法是，因为新的工作环境不再有男性化的设计，男性需要一种创新的方式来对新的工作环境保持一种控制感，即使用专业的Zoom背景。

On-screen appearances 屏幕表现

We are also regularly observing and being observed by people on the other side of our looking-glass screens, which can increase our focus on the appearance of others and generate discomfort about how we look. There’s a reason cosmetic surgery for facial procedures has skyrocketed since the uptick in Zoom use or “Zoom boom.”
我们还会与屏幕对面的人互相观察，这可能增加了我们对别人外表的关注，和对自己的外表的不适。 自从视频会议变多后，面部美容手术的需求就开始猛增。

Women are regularly objectified and sexualized for male pleasure or gain, which researchers refer to as the male gaze. This could help explain why women are less likely than men to turn their videos on during Zoom calls. Their decisions to do so stem from appearance-related concerns and, for some, a desire to multi-task, says Portland-based psychologist and tech expert Doreen Dodgen-Magee.
女性经常会因为男性的愉悦或利益，被客观化和性别化，研究人员将其称为男性的目光。 这可以解释为什么在视频通话中女性打开视频的意愿比男性低。 波特兰的心理学家兼技术专家多琳·道根·马吉说，这样做的源于对外表的担忧，或者希望在视频的时候同时干点别的事情。

When using Zoom, many of our male colleagues report feeling uncomfortable with being continuously observed. Given this, it is conceivable that some men employ custom backgrounds as protective camouflage to reduce their vulnerability in a glaringly objectified space.
在视频通话中，很多男同事报告称，被人持续注视着很不舒服。 考虑到这点，可以想象有些男性会使用自定义背景作为保护性伪装，降低他们在镜头中脆弱性。

Being visually assessed in such overt ways is not something most men are familiar with, especially in their professional lives. This is demonstrated in a recent study that found that although female workers often perceive themselves to be observed in certain working environments males do not.
大多数男性不习惯被人用赤裸裸的目光审视，尤其在职业生涯中。 最近的一项研究证明，尽管女性员工经常觉得自己在工作环境中被人关注到，男性却不会。

Screen reflections 屏幕反思

Like Alice’s looking-glass, Zoom is transforming how we observe one another and construct or reconstruct our identities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The insights shared here suggest some of the ways that gender shapes the uptake of this platform among women and men.
就像爱丽丝的镜中世界一样，新馆期间的视屏通话正在改变我们在与别人见面的方式、打造个人形象的方式。 本文的观点是性别决定了男性和女性在接受数字化平台的不同。

Further research would be fascinating to conduct, particularly alongside our male and gender variant colleagues who can shed additional light on how creativity and resilience are used to fashion and secure Zoom-hood in our digital world.
在这方面进行进一步的研究会很有趣，尤其和我们的男性同事和多元性别同事一起，他们还会阐明创造力和适应力是如何在数字世界中塑造和维护整个视屏通话社区的。

本文转自On Zoom, Men Don’t Like Feeling Watched and Judged — but Women Are Used to It by Treena Orchard and Shauna Burke (西安大略大学健康研究学院的副教授).