美国国家公共电台 NPR On #MeToo, Americans More Divided By Party Than Gender

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

One year after the #MeToo movement took off, a new NPR/Ipsos poll shows the nation is deeply divided on the issue of sexual assault and harassment¹. Most of the thousand Americans surveyed see progress in holding offenders² accountable. But more than 40 percent feel the movement has gone too far. NPR's Tovia Smith has been looking into this poll and joins us now.

Hi, Tovia.

TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE³: Good morning.

MARTIN: So not so surprising that the nation is divided on this, as it is on so many things, but what is really interesting here is where that divide falls, right?

SMITH: Right. For all the talk about this as a woman's issue and a war on men, it turns out gender⁴ is actually less a driver here than party is. So for example, we asked whether the benefit of the doubt in these cases should go to alleged⁵ victims. Eighty-five percent of Democrats⁷ say yes, compared to 67 percent of Republicans. And that party divide is nearly twice the size of the gender gap.

And we see a similar pattern on sexual harassment. That gap has actually widened in the past year, mostly because of shifting opinions among Republicans. And you can get a sense of that here from one of the respondents, 53-year-old Cindy Bradshaw (ph) from Texas.

CINDY BRADSHAW: I feel like in the last year that girls are like, oh, yeah, me too. But I feel like some of the girls want the attention, and I feel like it really, really takes away from the girls that, you know, it really happened to.

MARTIN: So she clearly sounds like someone who thinks #MeToo, the movement as a whole, has gone too far. Did the poll ask that specific question, and what did it find?

SMITH: Yes. Very stark⁸ divide. Overall, 43 percent think #MeToo has gone too far. And from what respondents have told me, that tends to mean there's too much rushing to judgment⁹ and too many maybe frivolous¹⁰ accusations¹¹. So the partisan¹² divide on that, it's 3/4 of Republicans and less than 1/4 of Democrats.

And same story on related questions, like whether people think false accusations of sexual assault are common. The party split there is quadruple the gender gap. So we see lots of Democratic men, for example, like Steve Novotny (ph), from Georgia, who take the side of alleged victims and discount this whole idea of false accusations.

STEVE NOVOTNY: I think that's the exception as opposed to the rule. I mean, I think most people wouldn't make up something just to get back at someone. You know, they don't want to put themselves under that public scrutiny¹³.

MARTIN: Still, there are a lot of other people - men and women - who believe that false accusations do happen. So I mean, it's no wonder really we're seeing something of a backlash to the #MeToo movement right now.

SMITH: Yeah. That really has risen to a new level, especially since the controversy¹⁴ around then-Supreme Court nominee¹⁵ and now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh who was accused, of course, of sexual misconduct that allegedly happened decades ago. And also since President Trump¹⁶ has been fueling the narrative¹⁷ that this is a scary time for young men because they'll be considered guilty until proven innocent. That has all helped bolster¹⁸ this #HimToo movement, which is the hashtag now being used for the cause of the wrongly accused. And our survey suggests that does seem to be resonating with the president's base.

MARTIN: Also I mean, we should just point, out the president himself has these allegations against him and has maintained that he is among the falsely accused. So Tovia, what about the other side? I mean those who may think #MeToo has been a long-overdue reckoning? What does the poll say about those people?

SMITH: Yeah. We see that just over 2/3 think that #MeToo has brought about a new era of accountability - so people accused of sexual misconduct will be held accountable. But we still see more than a third of women and Democrats who believe reports of sexual harassment do still get ignored. And that's actually up slightly from last year. I heard that from Texas Democrat⁶ Juan Rodriguez (ph), who thinks allegations get dismissed because people are demanding a level of proof now that often just doesn't exist in sexual misconduct cases.

JUAN RODRIGUEZ: With the way things are now, I think it's just going to get brushed off. They're raising the bar too high. Like, you've got to really prove your case. It gives the perpetrator the right to just get away with stuff.

MARTIN: So if he's right, if the bar, if the burden of proof is higher, I mean, you could say that, I would imagine, there's an effect on whether or not women report. Did the poll address that?

SMITH: Yeah. Actually, reporting is one area of agreement here. We see 75 percent of women, - 75 percent of people believe that women still risk their jobs when they report sexual assault. But interestingly, most people also say they would be more likely to report now than they would've been a year ago.

MARTIN: NPR's Tovia Smith digging into that poll for us.

Thank you so much.

SMITH: Thank you.

NPR

1 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

2 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

5 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

6 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

9 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

10 frivolous   

adj.轻薄的；轻率的

参考例句：

• This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
• He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。

11 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

12 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

13 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

14 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

15 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

16 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

17 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

18 bolster   

n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.高利率使经济更稳健。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。