穿着纤细高跟鞋慰问灾区，美国第一夫人惹麻烦

在什么情况下，鞋子不仅仅意味着鞋子?

When it is a pair of very high, needle-thin heels worn by the first lady of the United States on her way to the site of a natural disaster. Then it becomes a symbol for what many see as the disconnect between the Trump administration and reality; another example of the way in which this president and his family continue to define “appropriate” their own way; and an excuse for partisan name-calling.

当美国第一夫人在赶往自然灾害现场的路上脚穿一双鞋跟细如针尖的高跟鞋时，这双鞋便成了许多人心目中特朗普政府与现实脱节的象征;成了总统和家人继续以自己的方式定义“适当”的又一个例子;并且为党派之间的互相辱骂提供了借口。

Or so became apparent Tuesday morning when President Trump and his wife left the White House to fly to Texas for a briefing on the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, and Mrs. Trump appeared on the lawn in black pegged trousers, black shades, an olive green bomber jacket — and her stilettos, now a trademark. Very much the same kind of shoes, in other words, she has been wearing since long before she joined her husband on the campaign trail.

周二上午，特朗普总统夫妇离开白宫飞往德克萨斯州，去听取飓风哈维(Hurricane Harvey)造成的破坏情况的简报，特朗普夫人在白宫草坪亮相时身穿黑色萝卜裤，橄榄绿色飞行员夹克，戴着黑色太阳镜——脚下踩着那双细高跟鞋，现在它已经成了她的标志。她以前的很多鞋子都是这样的，换句话说，在她开始参与丈夫的竞选活动很久前就开始穿这样的鞋子了。

Though by the time the plane had landed Mrs. Trump looked altogether more grounded, in white sneakers and crisp white shirt, with a ponytail pulled through a black baseball cap emblazoned with the word “FLOTUS,” during her time in the air the original shoes went from being mere footwear to objects of vilification thanks to social media’s specific kind of alchemy.

不过，飞机降落时，特朗普夫人的打扮看上去比较接地气了，她换上了白色运动鞋和挺括的白色衬衫，马尾辫穿过一顶黑色的棒球帽，上面写着“FLOTUS”(First Lady of the US，即“美国第一夫人”缩写——译注)，然而，就在她飞行那段时间，由于社交媒体特有的魔力，她原本的那双鞋子从一双纯粹的鞋子变成了众口诋毁的对象。

In response to the critical reaction, Stephanie Grisham, Mrs. Trump’s communications director, emailed the following statement: “It’s sad that we have an active and ongoing natural disaster in Texas, and people are worried about her shoes.”

作为对批评的回应，特朗普夫人的通讯联络主管史蒂芬妮·格里沙姆(Stephanie Grisham)通过电子邮件发送了以下声明：“德克萨斯州发生了一场尚未终结的自然灾害，目前仍在持续，人们却在为她的鞋子而烦恼，真是让人伤心。”

That’s a fair point, to a certain extent. Certainly there was a backlash to the backlash, with Chelsea Handler, for example, being attacked in turn for her tweet attacking Mrs. Trump’s spikes.

在某种程度上，这么说没有错。确实，也有人强烈抨击针对她的强烈抨击，比如说，切尔西·亨德勒(Chelsea Handler)，就因为发推攻击特朗普夫人的高跟鞋而遭受攻击。

Not to mention some partisan crowing about the sneakers.

更不用说一些党派人士对她那双运动鞋的大肆赞美。

But to dismiss all this as merely much ado about heels, or an example of the pettiness of our divided electorate, is to ignore the reality of the current conversation around the president — to pretend not to notice how sensitized everyone has become to his unpredictable reactions to major events, and to deny the power of the telling detail to invite applause, condemnation or misinterpretation.

但是，如果仅将这一切贬低为针对高跟鞋的大惊小怪，或觉得这只是证明了我们分裂的选民有多爱小题大作，那便是忽略了当前围绕着总统的争议——持这种看法的人假装不去注意，由于特朗普对重大事件的反应总是难以预料，所有人都对此变得有些过敏;而且他们否认生动的细节具有强大的力量，可以引来掌声、谴责或是误解。

It is precisely the superficial nature of clothing, the fact that garments are immediately accessible to all, that makes them the go-to stand-in for more nuanced, complicated emotions and issues.

服装是可以被所有人迅速理解的，事实上，正是由于这种浅薄的本质，使得它们成了某些更微妙、更复杂的情绪和问题的替身，往往更容易被人们关注。

Mrs. Trump’s heels, after all — they appear to be classic Manolo Blahniks — are redolent of a certain clichéd kind of femininity: decorative, impractical, expensive, elitist (all adjectives often associated with the brand “Trump”).

特朗普夫人的高跟鞋似乎是莫罗·伯拉尼克(Manolo Blahnik)经典款，毕竟，它们充满一种相当陈腐的女性气质：装饰性、不实用、昂贵、精英主义(这些词也常常和“特朗普”这个品牌联系在一起)。

That they also are part of the identity the first lady brought to Washington — that her comfort level and ability to walk in exactly the kind of shoes that cause other women, wearing more solid shoes, to wince and crunch their toes in imaginary pain was part of her narrative and image from the start — does not obviate the fact that they have also come to represent her remove, for both good and ill. Women in the capital are generally more associated with sensible pumps than teetering patent leather numbers.

第一夫人来到华盛顿时，这些高跟鞋构成了她的身份——她能大方自然地穿上它们，并且行走无碍，而其他习惯了更舒适鞋子的女人看到她的这种鞋子，肯定会蹙起眉头，只要想象一下穿这种鞋子有多疼，她们的脚趾都会情不自禁地缩起来，这从一开始就是她的叙事与形象的一部分——但是不能否认，它们也代表了她的距离感，不管这样是好还是坏。首都政界的女人们通常都习惯穿更实用的半高跟鞋，而不是摇摇欲坠的真皮定制鞋履。

This Mrs. Trump understands, which is why she changed into a more suitable costume (I use that word deliberately) for her arrival in Corpus Christi, Tex. The problem is that, as first lady, in an environment as fraught as the current one, there is no such thing as offstage. Even boarding a plane becomes a quasi-official moment in which all messaging, spoken or assumed, is mined for meaning.

特朗普夫人明白这一点，所以她在赶到德克萨斯州的科珀斯克里斯蒂之前换了一身更合适的戏服(我是故意使用这个词的)。问题是，在当前这样令人忧虑的环境下，身为第一夫人，是没有“台下”这一说的。即使登机也是一个准官方时刻，所有传达出的信息，不管是言传还是意会，都会被人用来挖掘深意。

Mrs. Trump clearly knows this to a certain extent and has accepted it as an exigency of her job; how else to interpret the Dolce & Gabbana black lace coat and veil she wore to visit the pope on the president’s first foreign tour, or the classic red Dior suit she chose for her arrival in France for Bastille Day? Or the fact that, while hosting Akie Abe, the first lady of Japan, on Mrs. Abe’s visit to Mar-a-Lago, she wore flat sandals for their tour of the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens? (When in Florida. ...)

特朗普夫人在一定程度上清楚这一点，并将其视为自己工作的迫切需要;否则如何解释她随总统首次出访外国期间，在拜访教皇时所穿的杜嘉班纳(Dolce&Gabbana)黑色蕾丝外套和面纱?还有她在巴士底日当天抵达法国时选择的红色迪奥(Dior)经典套装?以及日本首相访问马阿拉歌期间，她招待日本第一夫人安倍昭惠(Akie Abe)参观森山博物馆和日式花园时穿的平底凉鞋?(不过当时是在佛罗里达州……)

The sharp point of the stilettos is that this kind of proactive analysis needs to be applied as consistently as possible across all public appearances (which, when you are in the White House, is all appearances).

关于细高跟鞋的重点在于，这种主动出击的分析方式需要在所有公开亮相(如果你身在白宫，随时都是公开亮相)当中尽可能始终如一地应用。

In Mrs. Trump’s job, as in her husband’s, details matter. Even shoes. Put your best foot forward, and all that.

特朗普夫人的工作同她丈夫的工作一样，细节是很重要的。就连鞋子也不例外，要把你最好的一面拿出来，就是这样。