【英语语言学习】为什么女性容易受到骚扰

'm Rachel Martin, and this is For The Record.

When you live part of your life online through social media, you have to be prepared for everything that comes your way. The more visible someone is, the more likely a target of harassment¹. And on Twitter or Facebook, that harassment can sometimes be frightening. For The Record this week - the disturbing cost of a life online. And a warning - some of the descriptions in this story are violent.

All you have to do is peruse² the comment section on a news story to know it doesn't take much for some people to get nasty fast. Just last week, the Reuters news agency announced it is shutting down public comments on its news site. Even subjects that don't seem controversial can bring out the worst. After the comedian³ Robin⁴ Williams died, his daughter received all kinds of negative messages about her father's suicide.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Zelda Williams, who used Twitter to pay homage⁵ to her father after his death, was announced, has abandoned her Twitter and Instagram accounts. Her final tweet read...

MARTIN: Last month, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry decided⁶ to stop re-tweeting. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY: ...Because I fear that I would send all of my harassment that comes to me over to some person who doesn't deserve it.

MARTIN: According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 40 percent of Internet users have experienced some kind of harassment. Most of that is happening on social media. And the people who get the really bad stuff are women. Here are three of them.

MIKKI KENDALL: Mikki Kendall from hoodfeminism.com. I am an occasional feminist⁷, a cultural critic and sometimes an Internet loudmouth.

BRIANNA WU: My name is Brianna Wu. I'm head of development at Giant Spacekat. I make sure our software is being engineered on a timetable.

DR. DANIELLE LEE: I am Dr. Danielle N. Lee. I am a biologist at Cornell University. I examine both the basic behavior as well as individual differences in behavior of the African giant pouched⁸ rat.

MARTIN: (Laughter) It's a very specific line of work.

LEE: It is a very specific line of work.

MARTIN: Each of these women work in very different industries - media, tech, biology. But they each have very active lives on social media where they engage on everything from issues specific to their field to the big news event of the moment. For Danielle Lee, a black scientist, she says the Internet helps her break down stereotypes⁹.

LEE: I really like being in public. I really like sharing science with people. That's why I'm online.

MARTIN: For Mikki Kendall, it's just part of her job.

KENDALL: I'm a writer. Financially, I can't afford to not have some kind of a life online because part of getting paid is people knowing who you are.

MARTIN: And Brianna Wu - she skipped the description of how she uses the Internet and instead launched right into how it has brutalized her. How would you describe your online life?

WU: A war. I mean, I wish there were a different way to say it, but the last month has just been - it's frankly¹⁰ been horrible.

MARTIN: Wu is one of several women embroiled¹¹ in an online saga¹² called Gamergate.

WU: Gamergate is basically a group of male videogame players that are - they're frustrated¹³ with the inroads women are making into the videogame industry. And so I posted this image that was making fun of them. And 24 hours later, I'm fleeing from my home because people had threatened to kill me.

MARTIN: Mikki Kendall, the writer, got equally frightening threats. Three years ago she wrote a first-person story about getting an abortion¹⁴ - a story she knew would be controversial. Still she wasn't prepared for the backlash.

KENDALL: People threatened to shoot me. People threatened to gut¹⁵ me. There was a guy who told me he would cut me open and make me sure I never got a chance to kill another baby.

MARTIN: She dismissed most of it until the threats were no longer restricted to the digital world.

KENDALL: I got an actual picture sent to me of me and my children walking across the parking lot of the apartment complex we lived in. And I don't know how close this guy was, but the message was very clear.

MARTIN: The police intervened and eventually the man was apprehended¹⁶ for another crime. But you don't have to get death threats online to feel harassed¹⁷. Danielle Lee, the biologist, starting getting attacked after writing about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri this summer.

LEE: So someone had found a picture of me next to an animal because there's a lot of pictures of me next to animals. And they took that picture and then they made comments about what do you do with, essentially¹⁸, whining¹⁹ black people? You shoot them. And I shut my account down after that.

MARTIN: Two weeks later, she was back online. She and the other women we spoke²⁰ to all agreed that quitting the Internet isn't an option. For Mikki and Brianna, the abuse got so bad, they went to the police. But for most, the first line of defense²¹ is to block the user which is clearly Danielle's tool of choice.

LEE: I will put the brakes on that in a minute. I will - my block hand is strong. I will block you in half a minute. I'm like wax on, wax off with this block hand.

MARTIN: A lot of the harassment we've been talking about - most of it, in fact - happened on Twitter. The company recently partnered with a nonprofit to launch a new reporting tool to track bad online behavior. Twitter told us when they find out about content that's violating its rules, they shut the accounts down. Mikki Kendall said that's good, but harassers, also known as trolls, often use an easy workaround.

KENDALL: Well, what trolls will do is then just make a new account. Right? And IP blocking, in theory, could work if you blocked an entire IP address, except the reality is that most of them are savvy²² enough to spoof²³ their IP. And then your IP will look like you're from Croatia when you're really in Kentucky.

MARTIN: All three of these women kept up their online profiles after the harassment. So have they decided this is just the price of a life online?

WU: If you're a woman in the videogame industry, sadly, getting death threats and rape²⁴ threats is part of your job. I've been getting these for quite a while now.

MARTIN: Mikki Kendall says she doesn't expect the Internet to be a nice place. She even admits to stirring things up on purpose from time to time.

KENDALL: You know, I am not everyone's favorite cup of tea. There are people who will tell you that I am a stinky, mean girl. I don't necessarily listen to them when I say it, but I am certainly happy to protect their right to continue to think I am a stinky, mean girl, as long as they stop at stinky, mean girl and don't start with I'm going to find where you live and rape you.

MARTIN: Each of these women have made some life changes because of the abuse. Danielle simply shut down her Twitter account for a couple of weeks. For Brianna and Mikki, the threats were more severe. They both moved out of their homes. And Mikki thought about changing careers altogether.

KENDALL: And we talked about it as a family. I made the offer to my family. I've been a secretary before. I could go be a secretary again - that kind of thing. And they said that that wouldn't be right, and that wouldn't be fair. But that they did want us to make some changes. And we made those changes.

MARTIN: One big change - whenever she does public appearances now, she employs a real-life protection mechanism²⁵ to those digital threats.

KENDALL: Chances are good, if you look around the room, you'll see at least one 6 foot tall, really broad shouldered black guy standing²⁶ there looking at you. That's my husband. He's at everything.

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 peruse   

v.细读，精读

参考例句：

• We perused the company's financial statements for the past five years.我们翻阅了公司过去5年来的财务报表。
• Please peruse this report at your leisure.请在空暇时细读这篇报道。

3 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

4 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

5 homage   

n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬

参考例句：

• We pay homage to the genius of Shakespeare.我们对莎士比亚的天才表示敬仰。
• The soldiers swore to pay their homage to the Queen.士兵们宣誓效忠于女王陛下。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

8 pouched   

adj.袋形的，有袋的

参考例句：

• He pouched the pack of cigarettes. 他把这包香烟装入口袋中。 来自辞典例句
• His face pouched and seamed. 他的面孔肉松皮皱。 来自辞典例句

9 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

11 embroiled   

adj.卷入的；纠缠不清的

参考例句：

• He became embroiled in a dispute with his neighbours. 他与邻居们发生了争执。
• John and Peter were quarrelling, but Mary refused to get embroiled. 约翰和彼得在争吵，但玛丽不愿卷入。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

13 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

15 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

16 apprehended   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• She apprehended the complicated law very quickly. 她很快理解了复杂的法律。
• The police apprehended the criminal. 警察逮捕了罪犯。

17 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

18 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

19 whining   

n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚

参考例句：

• That's the way with you whining, puny, pitiful players. 你们这种又爱哭、又软弱、又可怜的赌棍就是这样。
• The dog sat outside the door whining (to be let in). 那条狗坐在门外狺狺叫着（要进来）。

20 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

21 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

22 savvy   

v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的

参考例句：

• She was a pretty savvy woman.她是个见过世面的漂亮女人。
• Where's your savvy?你的常识到哪里去了？

23 spoof   

n.诳骗，愚弄，戏弄

参考例句：

• The show was a spoof of college life.那戏是对大学生活的讽刺。
• That is Tim Robbins's spoof documentary about a presidential campaign.那是蒂姆·罗宾斯关于总统选举的讽刺纪录片。

24 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

25 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

26 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。