TORONTO — YOU can’t even really see the shoes.

多伦多——你其实很少能看到这些鞋子。

In many of the photos of women on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, the elegant gowns fall all the way to the ground, obscuring a view of their special-occasion footwear.

在戛纳电影节(Cannes Film Festival)女星走红毯的照片中，有很多优雅的及地长裙，遮挡了她们专为这个特殊场合穿着的鞋子。

So why on earth would it matter if women entering the prestigious¹ celebration of cinema chose not to confine themselves in difficult-to-walk-in heels, opting³ for something more manageable — or even fashion-forward, in a flat?

那么，如果一名女性决定不穿着难以走路的高跟鞋，而是选择更加方便——甚至是时尚前沿的——平底鞋，步入这个知名的电影盛会，又有什么大不了的呢？

It did seem to matter to someone, though. It was reported last week that some women were turned away from the festival for the sartorial⁴ sin of wearing flats. High heels, it turns out, appeared to be part of the unwritten red-carpet dress code. Wearing heels changes how you stand, how you walk and how you are perceived. Even if they are visible only in small flashes, when a hem² moves to one side, they are, in essence, a foundation garment: shoes that keep women in their place.

但是对于有些人，这似乎真的很重要。上周有报道称，一些女性穿着平底鞋前往这个电影节，却因违反着装规范而被拒之门外。实际上，高跟鞋似乎是不成文的红地毯着装规范之一。穿着高跟鞋，会改变你站立、走路的姿势，改变人们对你的感觉。即使鞋子被看到的时候很少，但当裙装的下摆摆到一边时，它们本质上就相当于紧身胸衣：鞋子让女性摆正自己的位置。

The heel has come to be the icon⁵ of feminine allure⁶ and even female power. But what, exactly, is this power and why do only women have the privilege of using heels to convey it?

高跟鞋已经变成女性魅力的标志，甚至是女性力量的标志。但是，这种力量究竟是什么，为什么只有女性才拥有用高跟鞋来表达它的特权呢？

Heeled footwear that gave the wearer a bit of a lift, or an advantage while on horseback, were not the original domain⁷ of women. They were first introduced into Western fashion around the turn of the 17th century from Western Asia. Privileged men, followed by women, eagerly wore them for more than 130 years as expressions of power and prestige.

高跟鞋会对穿着者产生一种“提升”效果，类似于骑在马上的优势，它最初并不是女性服饰。在17世纪之交，高跟鞋被首次从西亚引入西方时装领域。在130多年的时间里，它是权力和威望的表达，特权阶层的男性热衷于穿着高跟鞋，该阶层女性也随之效仿。

This changed, however, in the 18th century when the distinctions between male and female dress began to reflect larger cultural shifts. Regardless of class, men were deemed uniquely endowed with rational thought and thus worthy⁸ of political enfranchisement⁹. Heels were not required on this new equal playing field. Men began to wear the nascent¹⁰ three-piece suit in somber¹¹ hues¹² and were discouraged from standing¹³ out from one another. Alexander Pope, writing early in the century, composed a satirical list of men’s club rules that included the warning that if a member “shall wear the Heels of his shoes exceeding one inch and half... the Criminal shall instantly be expell’d... Go from among us, and be tall if you can!”

然而在18世纪时，情况发生了转变，男女服饰之间的差异开始反映更广泛层面上的文化转变。无论属于哪个阶级，男性都被视为唯一具有理性思维的性别，因而应当拥有政治选举权。在这种新的平等中，男性不再需要高跟鞋。他们开始穿着新兴的三件套，色调暗沉，别具一格是不受提倡的。在那个世纪之初，亚历山大·蒲柏(Alexander Pope)列出了男性俱乐部的规则，其中警告说，如果一个成员“鞋跟超过一英寸半……此人应被立即驱逐……从我们这里离开，自己去变高！”

Women, in contrast, were represented as being naturally deficient¹⁴ in reason and unfit for either education or citizenship¹⁵. Fashion was redefined as frivolous¹⁶ and feminine, and the high heel became a potent¹⁷ accessory of ditsy desirability. The “lively” character Harriot “tottering¹⁸ on her French heels and with her head as unsteady as her feet” in a 1781 story “The Delineator,” represented the typical 18th-century feminine ideal. The high heel was then suspect for other reasons, too; it had supposed connections to female vanity and deceitfulness. Added to this was the increasing fear that women would use heels and other sexualized modes of dress to seduce¹⁹ men and usurp²⁰ power. Marie Antoinette was the poster child for this, and this idea is the cornerstone of the contemporary conceit²¹ that high heels are accessories of female power.

相反，女性则被视为天生缺乏理性，不适合接受教育和拥有公民身份。时尚被重新定义为轻浮和女人味，高跟鞋成为“傻白甜”形象的有力辅助。在1781年的短篇小说《描画者》(The Delineator)中，“活泼”的人物哈里奥特(Harriot)“穿着法式高跟鞋摇摇晃晃的，脑袋就像她的脚一样不稳定”，这代表了18世纪女性的理想典型。接着高跟鞋又有了其他一些让人不放心的理由；它与女性的虚荣心和不诚实联系到了一起。此外人们还越来越担心，女性会用高跟鞋等性感服饰来迷惑男人并篡夺权力，玛丽·安托瓦内特(Marie Antoinette)就是一个典型例子。而这种观念也奠定了基础，让高跟鞋成为了一种代表女性权力的配饰。

By the 19th century, the invention of photography, and its immediate²² adoption²³ by pornographers, established the curious convention of depicting²⁴ women stripped of their clothing with the exception of their shoes.

到19世纪，摄影术的发明及其在色情作品中的迅速普及，催生了一种古怪的惯例：描绘除了鞋子之外不着其他衣物的女性。

The heel also retained its associations with female irrationality²⁵. As one anti-suffrage²⁶ agitator²⁷ wrote in The New York Times in 1871, “Suffrage! Right to hold office! Show us first the woman who has ... sense and taste enough to dress attractively and yet to walk down Fifth-avenue wearing ... a shoe which does not destroy both her comfort and her gait.”

高鞋鞋仍然保持着与女性非理性形象之间的联系。一个反对女性参政的煽动者，在1871年的《纽约时报》上写道：“选举权！担任公职的权利！先让我们看看，哪个女人有足够的理性和品味，穿着让她舒适，又不破坏步态的鞋子，风姿绰约地走过第五大道。”

With all this baggage weighing down high heels, it’s no wonder they couldn’t gain a foothold in men’s fashion — even when men’s stature²⁸ became a cultural focus in the early decades of the 20th century. Pseudoscientific ideas promoted Darwinian concepts of survival of the fittest and linked male height directly to sexual attractiveness. Heels could have been pressed back into service in men’s fashion, yet they were rejected. Heels on men detracted from their masculinity by highlighting a natural lack of height, rather than conferring any advantage gained from artificially increased stature.

高跟鞋被这种种包袱所拖累，难怪无法在男士时装中拥有一席之地——即使在20世纪最初几十年，男人的身高成为一个文化焦点的时候。一些伪科学观念引入达尔文优胜劣汰概念，把男性身高和性吸引力直接联系起来。高跟鞋本有可能回到男士时装界，但遭到了他们的拒绝。男人穿着高跟减损了他们的阳刚之气，突出了天生的身高不足，人为增加的身高不会赋予他们任何优势。

High heels on women, however, remained the cultural norm. Even when heels temporarily went out of fashion, they retained a prominent place in erotica. At the conclusion of World War II, this association led to the invention of the stiletto. The exceptionally thin heels depicted²⁹ in wartime pinup art were made reality in the early 1950s and real-life women were encouraged to emulate³⁰ those pinup ideals. Marilyn Monroe — alluring³¹, playful and invariably stiletto shod — became one of the principal feminine archetypes of the period.

然而，女性穿着高跟鞋仍然是一种文化规范。即使在时装领域，高跟鞋会暂时过气，在情色领域，它也始终屹立不倒。第二次世界大战结束后，这种联系催生了细高跟鞋的发明。战时美女招贴中细到极致的高跟鞋，在50年代初成了现实，社会鼓励现实生活中的女性去模仿那些画报女郎。诱人、顽皮，总是穿细高跟鞋的玛丽莲·梦露(Marilyn Monroe)，成为了这一时期女性的典型形象。

By the 1960s, the high heel fell somewhat from favor; too “mature” for the Youthquake style revolution and too problematic for emerging feminists³². It returned to fashion in the 1970s, perfectly³³ in tune with the disco era (when some men did allow heels back into their wardrobe, too).

到了20世纪60年代，高鞋跟变得不那么受青睐了；对于“青年风暴”(Youthquake)的风格革命而言，它太“成熟”；而对新锐女权主义者来说，它又太容易惹麻烦。到70年代，高跟鞋重新流行起来，与那个迪斯科时代完美契合（高跟鞋当时也确实出现在了一些男性的衣柜中）。

In the 1980s, as unprecedented³⁴ numbers of women entered the white-collar workplace, climbing the corporate³⁵ ladder was perceived as socially risky³⁶ — it could strip a woman of her desirability. High fashion offered an antidote³⁷: Toweringly high “killer heels” that insinuated³⁸ that business acumen³⁹ alone was not the reason for women’s success. By the early 2000s, designer heels were perceived as “power tools” — as one Times story called them — to be used, like lingerie, by professional women to manipulate people through the “power” of sex appeal, an idea that continues to resonate to this day.

上世纪80年代，前所未有的大批女性进入职场，事业心太强开始被认为是社交生活的不利因素——它可能会让女性不招人喜欢。高端时尚提供了一个对策：高耸入云的“致命高跟”。它可以旁敲侧击地告诉对方，女性的成功并非只是因为她的商业头脑。本世纪初，设计师版的高跟鞋被认为是“影响力工具”——时报的一篇报道也曾使用这种说法——职业女性利用高跟鞋，通过性感的“力量”来操纵他人，这个想法在今天仍然会得到认同。

Linking sex appeal to power also clearly suggests that women have a very short window of opportunity for when they can be seen as powerful. The common comment about the Cannes debacle — that a handful of middle-aged⁴⁰ women in flats were turned away — illustrates⁴¹ this issue. In an apologist manner, this observation seemed to suggest that perhaps if these women hadn’t been so aged they wouldn’t have worn sensible shoes. Never mind what accomplishments⁴² or connections brought them to the festival.

性魅力与影响力之间的关联还可以清晰地表明，女性一生中只有很短暂的一段时间可以显得富有权力。对于今年戛纳电影节上的事故——少数穿着平底鞋的中年女性被拒绝入场——的普遍看法就突显了这个问题。虽然带有道歉的姿态，但这种观点似乎在暗示，或许如果这些女性不这么老，就根本不会去穿舒服的平底鞋，无论她们是凭借什么成绩或关系来参加庆典的。

This is the ultimate problem with sexual allure as a purported⁴³ means to power: The power lies in the eye of the beholder⁴⁴, not the beheld⁴⁵.

这就是把性诱惑力视作影响力工具要面对的终极问题：你是否有影响力取决于观察者的主观看法。

If the argument for heels is that they are part of traditional attire⁴⁶ for women, that is not wrong. The body-revealing gowns and barely there footwear worn by women on the red carpet have direct links to 18th-century ideas on gender⁴⁷, 19th-century pornographic images and midcentury concepts of a woman’s place in society.

如果倡导穿高跟鞋的人声称它属于女性的传统服饰，这也一点没错。暴露的礼服和藏在裙子下的鞋子与18世纪的性别观、19世纪的色情图片，以及上世纪中叶的女性社会地位有着直接的关系。

Perhaps it is a tradition we can upend in the 21st century, when it should be clear that a woman’s power has nothing to do with the height of her heel.

或许我们可以在21世纪颠覆这个传统，因为我们现在都清楚，女性的影响力与鞋跟的高度无关。