VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS 2013-05-14 Activists, News Media Examine Reporting of Rape

 

AS IT IS 2013-05-14 Activists¹, News Media Examine Reporting of Rape²

From VOA Learning English, welcome to As It Is.

Hello, I’m Steve Ember. Thanks for joining us.

Activists and news reporters are questioning how media around the world report rape and other sexual abuse. The Oxford³ Journal of Public Health has called on world media to improve reporting on sexual violence against women. The magazine says the media too often concentrate on a few crimes -- and fail to make sense of the larger issue of sexual violence.

“We need to challenge those attitudes that, first, excuse violence by men and, secondly⁴, disparage⁵ and denigrate⁶ women.”

Rape – and other forms of sexual abuse – will be our focus on this edition of As It Is.

Media reports this year have told of many extreme sex attacks. In New Delhi, a group of men rape a young student on a bus. She later dies from her injuries. A teenage girl in South Africa is also gang raped⁷. She also dies of her injuries. A Swiss woman is gang raped in front of her husband during a visit to India.

In the United States, young athletes abuse a girl who is unconscious and send out pictures of the sexual abuse on their mobile phones. And, most recently…

[Amanda Berry 911 emergency call]

Three missing women are rescued from a house in Cleveland, Ohio where they have been held and sexually abused for many years. 

Women in public health and in media are calling for reporting that leads to social change. They are also calling for an end to reporting that blames the victim. 

The United Nations says that women age 15 to 44 are “more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war and malaria⁸.”

Janice Du Mont is a scientist at the Women’s College Research Institute in Toronto, Canada. She and Deborah White of Trent University wrote an editorial about rape for the Oxford Journal of Public Health. It is called Sexual violence: what does it take for the world to care about women?

Janice Du Mont says the media do not give a clear picture of the large numbers of rape that take place.  She says western media often report on incidents in other places.    

“Rape is not just India’s shame. It occurs everywhere, you know, regardless of culture or socio-economic status.”

She says the media seem interested in some rape cases, but not others.

“These are the more shocking cases. So cases in which women are gang raped or raped by more than one assailant. You know, these cases   are not really representative of the full sort of realities of sexual assault, especially in non-conflict settings.” 

Janice Du Mont says it is much more common for women to be attacked by someone they know, including husbands and other family members. She says these attacks harm society.

“I guess the point we would like to make is that these other more common forms of sexual assault that may not be deemed newsworthy have a huge toll⁹ on the individual and society as a whole. You know, have immediate¹⁰ and lingering effects. They result in a lot of pain and suffering, unwanted pregnancies¹¹, sexually transmitted infections.”

Doctor Du Mont says rape victims may suffer from depression – continuing severe sadness -- or live in fear. They may leave school or even attempt suicide. In some cultures, the victim is forced to marry the attacker. Or she is killed in the name of family honor.

Janice Du Mont says any rape harms both rape survivors¹² and their community. She says the problem is made worse by lack of information, false beliefs and blaming the victim.

“I think it’s these pervasive¹³ negative attitudes and stereotypes¹⁴ about women who are raped and rape, in general. And we need to challenge those attitudes, but also practices and policies that, first, excuse violence by men and, secondly, that disparage and denigrate women.”   

The editorial in the Journal of Public Health also told about a report by a Nigerian writer, Amaka Okafor-Vanni in the Guardian¹⁵ newspaper.  She criticized what she called a culture of rape in Nigeria. Miz Okafor-Vanni called for an end to social rules that demand modesty¹⁶ from women but punish women when men fail to honor their modesty.                                                                                          

Experts Du Mont and White want others working in women’s health care and public health to help reporters understand the whole story Experts Du Mont and White want others working in women’s health care and public health to help reporters understand the whole story of rape. They are calling for media reports that will explain the “psychological, physical, social and economic costs of all types of sexual violence.” 

“It is about exerting power and control over somebody else. It’s not related to sex. It’s related to abuse of power and control.” 

The Women’s Media Center and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health held an event this winter to educate reporters and public health students. Helen Benedict spoke¹⁷ at the event in New York. She also writes a blog for the Women’s Media Center web site page called “Women Under Seige.” She criticized media in the United States for failing to ask why men rape. She says reporters instead ask questions about the rape victim.

Reporter Mallary Jean Tenore sees differences in reporting on three main topics: the victims, the suspects and cultural beliefs about sexual attacks. Writing on the journalism¹⁸ website Poynter.org, she gives the example of Indian reporter Sameera Khan.

Ms. Khan writes that usually police make moral judgments¹⁹ about the victims and the Indian media simply repeat them. But she praised the reporting in the case of the young student in New Delhi. Ms. Khan says she thinks the improved reporting came about because of the angry response of average people in India who wanted justice for the victim. She says the media reflected the feeling of the protesters.                                                                   

Janice Du Mont says sexual attacks are underreported around the world. She says Canada’s most recent survey is 20 years old. This month, the United States military reported a 35% increase in unreported sexual attacks since 2010.

President Obama immediately called for stronger enforcement to prevent abuse in the military. The report was released two days after police arrested the chief of the Air Force office that deals with preventing sexual attacks. He is accused of a sexual attack. 

Rape has also become a weapon of war. A recent report by the International Rescue Committee says rape is a major and troubling feature of the Syrian civil war. The U-N says hundreds of thousands of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been victims of sexual violence.

1 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 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。

3 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

4 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

5 disparage   

v.贬抑，轻蔑

参考例句：

• Your behaviour will disparage the whole family.你的行为将使全家丢脸。
• Never disparage yourself or minimize your strength or power.不要贬低你自己或降低你的力量或能力。

6 denigrate   

v.诬蔑，诽谤

参考例句：

• It was unkind to denigrate her achievement.贬低她的成就是刻薄的。
• To assert this is to denigrate the effectiveness of the police.坚持这一点就是贬低警方的办事能力。

7 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

8 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

9 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

10 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

11 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

12 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

13 pervasive   

adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的

参考例句：

• It is the most pervasive compound on earth.它是地球上最普遍的化合物。
• The adverse health effects of car exhaust are pervasive and difficult to measure.汽车尾气对人类健康所构成的有害影响是普遍的，并且难以估算。

14 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》

15 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

16 modesty   

n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素

参考例句：

• Industry and modesty are the chief factors of his success.勤奋和谦虚是他成功的主要因素。
• As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后，谦虚使人进步。

17 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。

18 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

19 judgments   

判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判

参考例句：

• A peculiar austerity marked his judgments of modern life. 他对现代生活的批评带着一种特殊的苛刻。
• He is swift with his judgments. 他判断迅速。