2019年经济学人 约翰逊语言专栏--用委婉语掩盖性暴力会导致更恶劣后果(2)（在线收听）

Or consider the English word. Coming from Latin rapere, its oldest sense involves neither sex nor bodily harm; it means to take something by force (as in the adjective, “rapacious”). This represents the attitude of many centuries in which rape was considered a property crime against a husband or father, robbing them of a woman’s virginity or chastity, which were the father’s to give away to a spouse. It was not something done to the woman herself.

或者想想英语单词。Rape 源自拉丁语 rapere，它最古老的意思既不涉及性也不涉及身体伤害；它的意思是用武力取得某物(如形容词“rapacious贪婪的”)。这代表了许多世纪以来的态度，强奸被认为是对丈夫或父亲的财产犯罪，剥夺了她们的贞操或贞操，而贞操是父亲送给配偶的。这不是女性自己做的事。

Fortunately, feminists long ago succeeded in placing the woman’s experience at the heart of the matter. But “rape” is now such a powerful and painful word that English-speakers have developed a hazier vocabulary to talk about and around it instead. “Sexual assault” rose in prominence in the 1970s. Its adoption reflected the fact that there were many ways to commit, and experience, traumatic sexual violence; the kind that could rob a woman of her virginity was only one, and need not always be privileged over others. Numerous American states and Canada, for example, no longer have a crime called “rape” on the statute books, but rather varying degrees of sexual assault.

幸运的是，女权主义者很久以前就成功地将女性的经验置于问题的核心。但“rape 强奸”现在是一个如此强大而痛苦的词，以至于说英语的人已经形成了一个更模糊的词汇来谈论和围绕它。“Sexual assault 性侵犯”在20世纪70年代开始流行起来。这个词的采用反映了这样一个事实，即犯下和经历创伤性暴力的方式有很多；能夺走一个女人童贞的东西只有一种，而且不必总是享有特权。

The breadth of the label “sexual assault” has its uses—for example, when statisticians want to aggregate different offences. It can convey the sense of violation that comes with all its manifestations. It gives women who have suffered different kinds of harms an umbrella of solidarity. Finally, victims who use “sexual assault” may themselves not want to be more specific.

“Sexual assault 性侵犯”这个标签的宽度有它的用途——例如，当统计学家想要汇总不同的犯罪行为时。它可以传达所有的表现形式所带来的冒犯感。它为遭受各种伤害的女性提供了团结的保护伞。最后，使用“性侵犯”一次的受害者自己可能不想说得更具体。