穿着纖細高跟鞋慰問災區

When is a shoe not just a shoe?

在什麼情況下，鞋子不僅僅意味着鞋子？

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.

當美國第一夫人在趕往自然災害現場的路上腳穿一雙鞋跟細如針尖的高跟鞋時，這雙鞋便成了許多人心目中特朗普政府與現實脫節的象徵；成了總統和家人繼續以自己的方式定義“適當”的又一個例子；並且爲黨派之間的互相辱罵提供了藉口。

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.

週二上午，特朗普總統夫婦離開白宮飛往德克薩斯州，去聽取颶風哈維(Hurricane Harvey)造成的破壞情況的簡報，特朗普夫人在白宮草坪亮相時身穿黑色蘿蔔褲，橄欖綠色飛行員夾克，戴着黑色太陽鏡——腳下踩着那雙細高跟鞋，現在它已經成了她的標誌。她以前的很多鞋子都是這樣的，換句話說，在她開始參與丈夫的競選活動很久前就開始穿這樣的鞋子了。

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.

不過，飛機降落時，特朗普夫人的打扮看上去比較接地氣了，她換上了白色運動鞋和挺括的白色襯衫，馬尾辮穿過一頂黑色的棒球帽，上面寫着“FLOTUS”（First Lady of the US，即“美國第一夫人”縮寫——譯註），然而，就在她飛行那段時間，由於社交媒體特有的魔力，她原本的那雙鞋子從一雙純粹的鞋子變成了衆口詆譭的對象。

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.”

作爲對批評的迴應，特朗普夫人的通訊聯絡主管史蒂芬妮·格里沙姆(Stephanie Grisham)通過電子郵件發送了以下聲明：“德克薩斯州發生了一場尚未終結的自然災害，目前仍在持續，人們卻在爲她的鞋子而煩惱，真是讓人傷心。”

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.

在某種程度上，這麼說沒有錯。確實，也有人強烈抨擊針對她的強烈抨擊，比如說，切爾西·亨德勒(Chelsea Handler)，就因爲發推攻擊特朗普夫人的高跟鞋而遭受攻擊。

Not to mention some partisan crowing about the sneakers.

更不用說一些黨派人士對她那雙運動鞋的大肆讚美。

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，如果僅將這一切貶低爲針對高跟鞋的大驚小怪，或覺得這只是證明了我們分裂的選民有多愛小題大作，那便是忽略了當前圍繞着總統的爭議——持這種看法的人假裝不去注意，由於特朗普對重大事件的反應總是難以預料，所有人都對此變得有些過敏；而且他們否認生動的細節具有強大的力量，可以引來掌聲、譴責或是誤解。

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.

服裝是可以被所有人迅速理解的，事實上，正是由於這種淺薄的本質，使得它們成了某些更微妙、更復雜的情緒和問題的替身，往往更容易被人們關注。

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羅·伯拉尼克(Manolo Blahnik)經典款，畢竟，它們充滿一種相當陳腐的女性氣質：裝飾性、不實用、昂貴、精英主義（這些詞也常常和“特朗普”這個品牌聯繫在一起）。

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.

第一夫人來到華盛頓時，這些高跟鞋構成了她的身份——她能大方自然地穿上它們，並且行走無礙，而其他習慣了更舒適鞋子的女人看到她的這種鞋子，肯定會蹙起眉頭，只要想象一下穿這種鞋子有多疼，她們的腳趾都會情不自禁地縮起來，這從一開始就是她的敘事與形象的一部分——但是不能否認，它們也代表了她的距離感，不管這樣是好還是壞。首都政界的女人們通常都習慣穿更實用的半高跟鞋，而不是搖搖欲墜的真皮定製鞋履。

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.

特朗普夫人明白這一點，所以她在趕到德克薩斯州的科珀斯克里斯蒂之前換了一身更合適的戲服（我是故意使用這個詞的）。問題是，在當前這樣令人憂慮的環境下，身爲第一夫人，是沒有“臺下”這一說的。即使登機也是一個準官方時刻，所有傳達出的信息，不管是言傳還是意會，都會被人用來挖掘深意。

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這一點，並將其視爲自己工作的迫切需要；否則如何解釋她隨總統首次出訪外國期間，在拜訪教皇時所穿的杜嘉班納(Dolce＆Gabbana)黑色蕾絲外套和麪紗？還有她在巴士底日當天抵達法國時選擇的紅色迪奧(Dior)經典套裝？以及日本首相訪問馬阿拉歌期間，她招待日本第一夫人安倍昭惠(Akie Abe)參觀森山博物館和日式花園時穿的平底涼鞋？（不過當時是在佛羅里達州……）

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).

關於細高跟鞋的重點在於，這種主動出擊的分析方式需要在所有公開亮相（如果你身在白宮，隨時都是公開亮相）當中儘可能始終如一地應用。

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樣，細節是很重要的。就連鞋子也不例外，要把你最好的一面拿出來，就是這樣。