VOA慢速英语:Do Sex Strikes Work?

Last month, women in a civil rights group in Togo called a weeklong sex strike to try to force the president of the West African nation to resign. Members of "Let's Save Togo" planned to withhold sex from their husbands to pressure the men to take action against President Faure Gnassingbe.
上个月，多哥一个民权组织的妇女号呼吁行一次为期一周的性罢工，试图迫使这个西非国家的总统辞职。这个名为“拯救多哥”的民权组织的成员计划拒绝与自己的丈夫发生性行为，以迫使他采取行动反对该国总统Faure Gnassingbe。

The opposition says his family has ruled Togo for too long. Withholding sex for political goals has a long history. It was used in ancient Greece. In the play "Lysistrata," the women of Athens decide to stop having sex with their husbands until the men end the Peloponnesian War.
反对派称，他的家族统治多哥的太长时间了。为实现政治目标拒绝性行为有着悠久的历史，这种方式曾在古希腊被用过。在戏剧《Lysistrata》中，雅典妇女决定停止与她们的丈夫发生性行为，直到他们结束伯罗奔尼撒战争。

But do sex strikes work? Pepper Schwartz is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington in Seattle. She says the idea is good for making news headlines, but it takes a lot of work.
但是性罢工有用吗？ Pepper Schwartz是西雅图市华盛顿大学的社会学教授。她说，这个想法是个不错的头条新闻，但仍需做大量工作。

PEPPER SCHWARTZ: "If you're talking about a few days where women make a point, I think that works. If you're talking about turning a whole nation around because nobody's getting any, I wouldn't put hard money on that because I don't think people stick to sex strikes. Yes, it's good to bring consciousness to your mate, [but] it's probably hard to stick to. Three, if you do stick to it too long, you might lose that other person's willingness to support your issue. So it's a tricky thing. I think it's a good headline, a lot harder to put into practice."
PEPPER SCHWARTZ：“如果你们说的是女性阐明观点的这几天，我认为这是有用的。如果你们说的是扭转整个国家，就因为没有性，我不会支持这种观点。因为我不觉得人们会坚守性罢工。是的，它有利于给伴侣带去某种意识，但它可能很难坚持。第三，如果你坚持性罢工时间太长，你可能会失去他人支持你观点的意愿。所以这是一件棘手的事。我认为它是一个好头条新闻，但是很难付诸实践。”

But pro-democracy activists in Togo say a sex strike during the civil war in Liberia gave them cause for hope. In two thousand three, Liberia had been through fourteen years of war. Leaders of the group Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace organized a series of nonviolent actions. Those included a sex strike.
但是多哥的民运人士称，利比里亚内战期间的性罢工给他们带来了希望。2003年时利比里亚已经经历了14年的战争。利比里亚和平运动妇女联盟的领导人组织了一系列非暴力活动，就包括性罢工。

The actions earned the group's leader a share of the twenty-eleven Nobel Peace Prize. Leymah Gbowee shared the prize with two other women, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She became Africa's first democratically elected female president in two thousand six. The third winner was Tawakkul Karman, a women's rights activist in Yemen.
这一行动让该组织领导人Leymah Gbowee与包括利比里亚总统Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf在内的另两名女性共同获得了2011诺贝尔和平奖。她于2006年成为非洲第一位民选女总统。第三名获奖者是也门女权人士Tawakkul Karman。

Yaliwe Clarke is a lecturer in gender studies at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Yaliwe Clarke是南非开普敦大学一名两性研究讲师。

YALIWE CLARKE: "I think if there's a sharing of the gains of this approach with other African women, then it will inspire them just like in Liberia -- this, the way in which the Mass Action for Peace, the methods that the women used in Liberia for the Mass Action for Peace. They've been written about, a film has been made, so now, you know African women are saying, 'Well, we can do that, as well.'"
YALIWE CLARKE：“我认为如果这种方法得到的收获能让其它非洲妇女也分享到，那么它就会激励她们，就像利比里亚和平运动所做的那样。利比里亚和平运动被写成书，拍成了一部电影。那么现在非洲妇女都在说，‘好吧，我们也能做到这点。’”

But Pepper Schwartz at the University of Washington says women need to hold real power in order for something like a sex strike to work.
但华盛顿大学的Pepper Schwartz称，为了让性罢工类似的活动产生效果，妇女需要掌握实权。
 
PEPPER SCHWARTZ: "They only work in proportion to the amount of power women have in a society. In other words, you have to have a certain amount of power already to tell your husband no. In some societies your husband would pound on you or, you know, enact his own kinds of revenge, but you have to have a society where a man respects a woman's opinion and her desire to say no and will, in fact, respect her for it."
PEPPER SCHWARTZ：“它们产生的效果与社会中女性拥有的权力大小成比例。换句话说，你必须有一定的权力对你丈夫说不。在某些社会中，你的丈夫会打你，或者，你知道的，实施他自己的报复。你必须在一个男性尊重女性观点和她说不的愿望的这样一个社会，事实上也就是尊重她。”