【我为鞋狂】 我为鞋狂 假货

　　灰姑娘的水晶鞋、桃乐丝的红宝石鞋，我们从小就听着这些童话长大；Sex and the City中的Carrie为鞋不惜一切；Devil in Prada的海报就是一只大红色的高跟鞋；《流星花园》中的藤堂静也说：“每个女人都要有一双好鞋，它会带你去任何想去的地方。”女人恋鞋本是天经地义的事情――因为我们都想找到那双只属于自己的玻璃鞋。
　　
　　We begin our pilgrimage into a woman’s heart outside the
　　Discount Shoe Warehouse (DSW) store in Littleton, Colo. For spiritual guidance, we say a reverent “Hail
　　1)Imelda,” then push open the double glass doors to paradise.
　　Pausing just inside this cavernous temple, we are dazzled and stunned. It’s a vision of wonder: rows of shoes in the Discount Shoe Warehouse. Shoes on sale. Shoes on clearance. Shoes in every color. Shoes with straps or buckles or 2)Gore-Tex lining. Shoes for hundreds, maybe thousands, of feet.
　　In this temporary state of grace, the heart of woman is revealed―and it’s 3)suede with a two-inch heel. The love affair between women and shoes runs deep. Often it’s something beyond words, a 4)visceral and pure devotion to sling backs and kitten heels.
　　“I just love shoes,” said Leslie Renda of Castle Rock, Colo., as she perused the clearance racks at DSW. “I don’t know if I can explain why. I used to have 80 pairs. Now when I get a new pair I have to hide them. My husband says, ‘Are those new?’ ‘No!’”
　　It’s simply the joy of shoes, a joy recognized early by most girls, one that grows with age.
　　Consider the fairy tales little girls are told:
　　Cinderella with her glass slippers, which help her win the prince’s heart. 5)Dorothy’s ruby slippers, which take her home.
　　Shoes never cause a woman to question whether she looks fat in them. They have the power to improve an otherwise 6)bleak day. Shoes provide a solid foundation for whatever complex psychology is going on with the rest of the outfit. Shoes, wrote author 7)Nicholson Baker, “are the first adult machines we are given to master.”
　　And women are masters. In the first 10 months of 2002, U.S. women spent $16 billion on 545 million pairs of shoes, compared to the $13 billion men spent on 284 million pairs, according to the NPD Group, a New York-based research group that tracks retail sales and trends.
　　“There’s such variety with shoes that a woman can really reflect her personality with them,” said Diane Bucci, manager of the Littleton DSW store. “She can have shoes to match every outfit. Or she’ll buy a pair that go with only one thing in her wardrobe. We call those one-outfit shoes.”
　　Whereas men tend to limit their shoe purchases to brown, black and 8)sneakers, said DSW assistant manager James Green, women have no problem loading up on wildly impractical shoes, especially if they’re on sale. And especially if they look good, or feel good, or give her a buzz when she glances down and catches a glimpse of them on her feet. Renda described it as a rush, slipping her feet into a new pair of shoes, absorbing their new-shoe smell, walking around in them for the first time.
　　Lisa Athon of Parker, Colo., another DSW customer, can relate. She appreciates the variety available in women’s shoes, and how shoes can update an outfit. Even if a woman can’t afford to 9)purge her wardrobe every season, a new pair of shoes can make her feel stylish and her outfits feel fresh.
本文为全文原貌 未安装PDF浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文 　　Much has been made of the shoe-sex connection, of the 10)fetishes and 11)Freudian analyses of the male-designed 12)subjugation wrought by high heels. Still more has been made of the physiological damage shoes can do, especially high heels. Colorado Springs 13)chiropractor Kerra Foreman said heels cause the spine to shift forward and 14)aggravate existing problems from the lower back to the jaw.
　　15)Podiatrist Jim Gremillion said women outnumber men four to one in his practice. They buy shoes that are too small, not realizing the average person’s foot swells half a size in width and length during the day. They wear high heels, ignoring the fact that for every inch of heel, another 20 pounds of pressure is inflicted on the ball of the foot. “We’ve made good progress (in educating women about shoes),” he said, “but vanity stands in our way.”
　　Which is a real predicament, because what woman hasn’t been willing to suffer just a little bit for a fabulous pair of shoes? Seeing a woman in torturously pointed heels or ridiculously 16)flimsy sandals is to think, in equal measure, “17)Dang, that looks painful” and “Dang, those are great shoes.”
　　At least, you’d think that if you’re a woman, because you know what’s in your heart.
　　
　　在科罗拉多州利特尔顿的折扣鞋仓（DSW）门外，我们开始了通向女性内心的朝圣之旅。我们虔诚地说了声“伊梅尔达万岁”，给自己的心灵指明方向。然后，我们推开了通往天堂的双层玻璃门。
　　一踏进这个深幽幽的圣殿，我们就眼花缭乱，目瞪口呆了。奇迹就出现在我们的眼前：DSW里的鞋子成行成列的。这里有正在大减价的鞋、作清仓处理的鞋、各种颜色的鞋；有系带的、系扣的、戈尔特斯衬里的鞋子。那是给数百双，也许数千双脚准备的鞋。
　　在蒙受天恩的短暂时刻，女性的内心世界表露无遗――那是一双两英寸高的绒面高跟鞋。女性与鞋之间的爱恋史源远流长。对于后带低跟鞋，女性那发自内心的、纯粹的执着是难以言表的。
　　 “我就是喜欢鞋，” 科罗拉多州罗克堡的莱斯利・伦达一边仔细翻拣着DSW里的清仓货，一边说道。“我不知道自己能否把这事儿说明白。我以前有八十双鞋。现在，如果我买了一双新鞋，我就得把它藏起来。我丈夫问：‘这是新的吗？’‘不是！’”
　　这绝对是由鞋带来的愉悦，大部分女孩很小就意识到这种愉悦，而且它随着年龄的增长而增加。想想那些小女孩们熟知的童话吧：灰姑娘脚上的水晶鞋帮助她赢得了王子的爱情。桃乐丝那对镶满红宝石的鞋把她领回了家。
　　鞋子从不会让一名女性对自己是否显胖产生怀疑，它们还有本事让女性的心情由阴转晴。女性一身的行头所带来的复杂心理最终是要以鞋子作为坚实基础的。作家尼科尔森・贝克说，鞋子“是交到我们手中，让我们自主支配的第一个成人机器。”
　　女性确实是鞋子行业的主人。美国纽约一个追踪零售额及其趋势的研究小组NPD集团的统计数字表明，在2002年的头十个月里，美国女性买了五亿四千五百万双鞋子，花费了160亿美元，相比之下，男性只买了两亿八千四百万双鞋，花了130亿美元。
　　“鞋子的款式千变万化，因此女性完全可以借此彰显自己的个性，”利特尔顿DSW的经理黛安娜・布奇说，“她可以拥有一双能与所有外套相配的百搭鞋，也可以买一双只跟她衣橱里的一样东西相配的鞋，我们称之为‘孤配鞋’。”
　　DSW的经理助理詹姆斯・格林说，男性购买的鞋趋向于局限在棕色、黑色和运动鞋之内，而女性则会毫不犹豫地为自己买上一双相当不实用的鞋子，特别是碰上大减价的时候。如果这些鞋子漂亮，感觉舒适，或者当女人往下看，鞋子套在脚上的样子让她兴奋的时候就更是如此。把脚伸进一双新鞋，沐浴着新鞋的气味，穿着它们第一次行走，那种感觉被伦达称为一种无名的兴奋。
　　科罗拉多州帕克市的莉莎・阿当也是一名DSW的顾客，她也认同这种感受。女鞋应有尽有的款式，以及鞋子让一身行头焕然一新的本事让她心存感激。即使一位女性做不到每个季节都把自己的衣橱清空更新，一双新鞋也能让她觉得神采飞扬，让她的一身打扮显得清新。
　　由高跟鞋引起的关于恋物情结以及对男性征服论的弗洛伊德式分析里，关于鞋与性别的关系已经被说得太多了。但更多的分析则是关于鞋子，特别是高跟鞋给人造成的生理伤害。科罗拉多州斯波林的脊柱指压治疗师克莱・福尔曼说，高跟鞋会导致人的脊柱前移，愈发加剧后腰到颌骨的已有疾患。
　　足病医生詹姆・格雷米林说，在他的病人当中，女性与男性的比例是四比一。她们买的鞋子太小了，因为她们没有意识到一般人的脚在白天纵横向都会大半个码。她们穿高跟鞋时，丝毫不理会鞋跟的高度每增加一英寸，拇趾就要多承受20磅的压力。他说：“我们在向女性宣传鞋子的相关知识方面取得了很大的进步，但虚荣心是大敌。”
　　这真是一个两难的困境，一名女性为了一双华美的鞋怎么会不愿意作出一点点牺牲呢？看到一名女性脚蹬歪歪扭扭的尖高跟鞋，或者可笑的摇摇欲坠的凉鞋，两个想法会同时冒出来：“见鬼，穿那双鞋太痛苦了”，还有，“见鬼，那双鞋可真不赖。”
　　至少，如果你是位女性，你一定会那样想，因为你知道自己的内心深处在想什么。
　　
　　
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