美国国家公共电台 NPR Workplace Sexual Harassment: A Threat To Victims, A Quandary For Bystanders

Workplace Sexual Harassment¹: A Threat To Victims, A Quandary² For Bystanders

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Donald Trump⁴ denies multiple accusations⁵ that he groped or grabbed or otherwise forced himself on women. Those complaints, and the candidate's denials, have prompted new discussions about sexual harassment at work and the responsibility of co-workers to intervene. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE⁶: Elizabeth Allen was at a happy hour for a San Francisco tech firm a couple years ago when a co-worker started forcing himself on her and the few other women at the party again and again.

ELIZABETH ALLEN: Giving us lots of hugs, trying to kiss me a few times. He grabbed my butt⁷ a couple of times.

NOGUCHI: The women were outnumbered by men, some of whom looked on bemused as the women tried to signal their distress⁸.

ALLEN: Probably the worst thing about that incident was that there were many, many men there, including this guy's manager was there, and none of them did anything about it. There's absolutely, you know, no doubting that we were very uncomfortable. It was very obvious. Nobody lifted a finger to try to do anything about it.

NOGUCHI: Allen says as a teen, her fast food manager sexually harassed⁹ her, but she felt she was supposed to go along with it. She recalled that feeling, many years later, after the happy hour incident, when she and the other women debated whether it was worth taking the matter to human resources.

ALLEN: It's interesting, you know? We were all a little bit uncomfortable with that because, again, I think there's this sort of feeling of, like, not wanting to be the uncool person who reports something like this.

NOGUCHI: The frequency of workplace sexual assault is hard to accurately¹⁰ quantify. Rape¹¹ prevention advocates say the prevalence varies by industry. Low-wage workers are especially at risk. Last week, 15 McDonald's workers around the country filed harassment charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The main problem in gauging¹² the prevalence of sexual assault is that many incidents go unreported.

Cynthia DeKay understands why. She says she was harassed as a teen working at a chicken restaurant. The St. Paul graphics¹³ designer says years later, when she worked at a commodities broker¹⁴, many of her male colleagues watched porn and bragged¹⁵ of sexual conquest. A physical threat never materialized, DeKay says, but she likely wouldn't have reported if it had.

CYNTHIA DEKAY: I would have been doubtful that I would have had support.

NOGUCHI: This is a common sentiment that affects even bystanders like Robert People. People was deployed¹⁶ in Iraq 13 years ago when a female co-worker confided¹⁷ she'd been raped¹⁸ by another colleague. He was determined¹⁹ to come to her defense²⁰ and report it, but his friend begged him not to.

ROBERT PEOPLE: She said, what happens if he doesn't get in trouble? What will I have to deal with then?

NOGUCHI: So he had to bear the burden of silence.

PEOPLE: I'm coming into work every day, I have to see her. I see her face, and she's worried and everything. I see him close by. And so that it doesn't, you know, hurt her or he doesn't come back on her in some type of way, I have to keep quiet.

NOGUCHI: People says the experience still haunts him today. He says he feels he allowed rape culture to persist.

PEOPLE: I blame myself for it. I have no problem saying, yeah, I enabled it by not knowing what to do.

NOGUCHI: He says he thinks and hopes the culture of the military has changed. In his unit, quarterly sexual harassment trainings are required. Still, he says, during one such session, a presenter²¹ said the Army's goal was to reduce sexual assaults by 50 percent. People was aghast.

PEOPLE: You can't call this zero tolerance²² if the goal is only 50 percent.

NOGUCHI: His impassioned response, met with ridicule²³ from some of his co-workers, People says he doesn't care. Now, he says, it's his turn to speak up. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.

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 quandary   

n.困惑，进迟两难之境

参考例句：

• I was in a quandary about whether to go.我当时正犹豫到底去不去。
• I was put in a great quandary.我陷于进退两难的窘境。

3 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

4 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。

5 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。

6 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。

7 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

8 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

9 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

10 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

11 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。

12 gauging   

n.测量[试]，测定，计量v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的现在分词 )；估计；计量；划分

参考例句：

• The method is especially attractive for gauging natural streams. 该方法对于测量天然的流注具有特殊的吸引力。 来自辞典例句
• Incommunicative as he was, some time elapsed before I had an opportunity of gauging his mind. 由于他不爱说话，我过了一些时候才有机会探测他的心灵。 来自辞典例句

13 graphics   

n.制图法，制图学；图形显示

参考例句：

• You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
• Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。

14 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

15 bragged   

v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He bragged to his friends about the crime. 他向朋友炫耀他的罪行。
• Mary bragged that she could run faster than Jack. 玛丽夸口说她比杰克跑得快。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

17 confided   

v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等）

参考例句：

• She confided all her secrets to her best friend. 她向她最要好的朋友倾吐了自己所有的秘密。
• He confided to me that he had spent five years in prison. 他私下向我透露，他蹲过五年监狱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 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

19 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

20 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。

21 presenter   

n.（电视、广播的）主持人，赠与者

参考例句：

• Most people think being a television presenter is exciting.很多人认为当电视节目主持人是一件刺激的事情。
• The programme dispensed with its most popular presenter.这个节目最受欢迎的主持人被换掉了。

22 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

23 ridicule   

v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄

参考例句：

• You mustn't ridicule unfortunate people.你不该嘲笑不幸的人。
• Silly mistakes and queer clothes often arouse ridicule.荒谬的错误和古怪的服装常会引起人们的讪笑。