访谈录 Interview 2007-08-06&08-07, 希拉里的着装风波

Hillary Clinton is no stranger to scrutiny¹, and once again her appearance is creating controversy². Last week on the Senate floor Clinton wore a low-cut blouse that showed a little bit of cleavage if you look closely there. Washington Post style reporter wrote about the wardrobe choice that Clinton camp fired off a letter to supporters calling the piece grossly inappropriate and asking for money to help her win. Let's go to Chris Cillizza who writes the blog The Fix for washingtonpost.com. Thanks for joining us, Chris.

Thanks for having me, Cameron.

So is this a wardrobe malfunction³ or has, um, the Senator capitalized on a hit here?

Well, where we are I think in politics is that the celebrity⁴ culture of sort of who's wearing what and, and how they are wearing it, is something that we are focusing on more than ever before. You know, the, the Hillary Clinton thing is the latest example, but if you remember back to earlier in the campaign, we had Barack Obama in a swimsuit coming out of the water on vacation in Hawaii. And the question was: well, is that appropriate, is it inappropriate? So, and never forget the ever ongoing⁵ debate over John Edwards' haircut, so it's something that's out there. I think Senator Clinton faces probably a little more scrutiny because she is a woman. She is the only woman in the field; she is the first woman who is seen as having a really legitimate⁶ chance at winning the presidency⁷. So those things all affect her as well.

Well, Chris, Barack was, um, Senator Obama was at the beach and you've got Senator Edwards' haircut, is it creepier though when you are talking about a woman's cleavage as opposed to someone appropriately dressed at the beach?

Right I think it gets into sort of more of a gray area certainly and again, it's, it's the, it's the struggle I think we in the media have with how to cover these campaigns. So realities is that personal characteristics do tend to matter. Er, people are interested in it, but at where do you draw the line and again just because Hillary Clinton is sort of a trailblazer in this regard. She is the first woman, er, seen as a front-runner of the presidential race. Drawing that line is different for her, than it might be for some of the men in the race. Er, you know John Edwards during the last debate said he didn't like Hillary's coat. Well, would he have said that about a man? Probably not.

It's interesting. Well, you know, this said, you said, where do you draw the line, maybe the line is drawn⁸ between the genders⁹. Take a look at what happened yesterday on Meet The Press, quite a heated exchange when this came up.

We make decisions every morning on what we, what we put on and how what sort of image we wanna project. And unfortunately in our society, women are scrutinized¹⁰ in a way that men aren't.

This was so marginal, this was like microscopic¹¹ evidence, (I'm gonna defend that column, too.) of, of an inappropriate attire¹².

I'm gonna defend that column, too.(It's..I don't think..) When you look at the calculation that goes into everything that Hillary Clinton does, for her to argue that she was not aware of what she was communicating by her dress is like Barry Bonds saying he thought he was rubbing down with flaxseed oil, okay?

It was 3:30 -- whoa, whoa, whoa. It was 4:00 o'clock...

Sometimes a blouse is just a blouse.

I think that's right, sometimes a blouse is just a blouse. (Yep.) But take a look at this comparison of blouses, Chris. Earlier this month, Jackie Smith, Britain's first female Home Secretary wore a much more revealing blouse to the House of Commons, you can see the comparison. So I’m putting you on the spot, what's your judgment¹³ in the way that British press handled something like this, and here it says?

I mean, I think that it's always gonna be hard and we’ll probably not always gonna get it right, but I have to say I'm probably as cynical¹⁴ a reporter in politics as they come, but I still think that sometimes ,you just ,a blouse is just a blouse. And I think, I don't think Senator Clinton wore this outfit¹⁵ to send a particular message, sexual or otherwise. Now I could be proven out wrong in the long run. But I would be stunned¹⁶ if that was the case.

Alright. Thank you very much Chris for talking with us on this topic.

Thank you.

1 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

2 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

3 malfunction   

vi.发生功能故障，发生故障，显示机能失常

参考例句：

• There must have been a computer malfunction.一定是出了电脑故障。
• Results have been delayed owing to a malfunction in the computer.由于电脑发生故障，计算结果推迟了。

4 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

5 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

6 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

7 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

8 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

9 genders   

n.性某些语言的（阳性、阴性和中性，不同的性有不同的词尾等）( gender的名词复数 )；性别；某些语言的（名词、代词和形容词）性的区分

参考例句：

• There are three genders in German: masculine, feminine and neuter. 德语中有叁性：阳性、阴性和中性。 来自辞典例句
• Japan was fourth among the genders of foreign students. 日本在二十个留美学生输送地中列第四位。 来自互联网

10 scrutinized   

v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The jeweler scrutinized the diamond for flaws. 宝石商人仔细察看钻石有无瑕庇 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Together we scrutinized the twelve lemon cakes from the delicatessen shop. 我们一起把甜食店里买来的十二块柠檬蛋糕细细打量了一番。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比

11 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

12 attire   

v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装

参考例句：

• He had no intention of changing his mode of attire.他无意改变着装方式。
• Her attention was attracted by his peculiar attire.他那奇特的服装引起了她的注意。

13 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

14 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

15 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

16 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。