美國：名人丈夫曝醜聞 妻子不再無言支持

Standing by your man suddenly seems to be going out of fashion for some American women in the public eye.

This month, the wives of at least two famous men caught cheating -- sexually and financially -- very openly declared that their spouses' behavior was actually quite scandalous.

Ruth Madoff, reacting to her husband Bernard being sentenced to 150 years in prison for bilking investors with a massive Ponzi scheme, said she felt "embarrassed," "ashamed" and "betrayed" by a man she had known for half a century.

"The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years," she said in a statement shortly after her husband's sentencing on Monday.

Last week, after South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford tearfully admitted to an affair with a woman in Argentina, his wife Jenny -- who was not by his side at his public confession -- left little doubt about her feelings.

"His career is not a concern of mine," she told reporters at a vacation home. "He's going to have to worry about that. I'm worried about my family and the character of my children."

Political analysts said the new attitude reflects generational and social change -- at least for some women in the United States.

"The old model didn't work," said Karlyn Bowman, an analyst of US public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute.

The image of the tearful wife, hiding behind sunglasses, next to her husband while he unloaded his sins to the world, was "intensely embarrassing" and some women are deciding they do not have to follow that path, she said.

"It may be that women just feel that they can do whatever they want," Bowman said.

Of course, the quiet, supportive wife remains a public pillar for many scandal-hit men -- just look at former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's wife Silda, whose wordless turn at his side last year when he admitted visiting prostitutes drew some sharp commentary.

And it wasn't that long ago when Hillary Clinton, then first lady, weathered the storm beside her husband, President Bill Clinton, over his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky in the White House in the late 1990s.

More recently, Elizabeth Edwards, whose husband John Edwards ran for president as a Democrat last year, publicly spoke out about his infidelity while promoting her memoir "Resilience."

對美國一些公衆女性來說，支持丈夫看起來已經過時了。

至少有兩位妻子在本月公開聲稱丈夫的行爲實際上非常可恥。她們的兩位“名人”丈夫分別身陷性醜聞和經濟詐騙。

露絲•麥道夫迴應稱，自己感到“尷尬、丟臉”，被認識了50年的男人“背叛”。她的丈夫伯納德•麥道夫因設計了巨大的“龐氏騙局”欺騙投資者而被判入獄150年。

露絲的丈夫於本週一被判入獄。她隨後在一份聲明中稱：“設計了這一可怕騙局的人不是這些年來我所認識的那個男人。”

美國南卡羅來納州州長馬克•山福德上週含淚坦承自己和一位阿根廷女子有染。在這之後，他的妻子珍妮毫不掩飾自己的情緒。在馬克向公衆告白時，珍妮並沒有站在他的一邊。

珍妮在度假別墅接受記者採訪時說：“他的事業跟我無關。他的事情由他自己操心。我所擔心的是我的家庭，以及孩子們的性格。”

政治分析家認爲，這種新的態度反映出不同時代和社會的變化，至少對一部分美國人來說是這樣。

美國企業研究所美國公衆輿論分析家卡爾林•鮑曼說：“舊的思維模式已經過時了。”

她表示，在丈夫向全世界懺悔罪行時，妻子戴着墨鏡站在一旁流淚的形象“非常難堪”，一些女性決定她們不要這樣做。

鮑曼說：“也可能是女性們覺得她們可以做任何自己想做的事情。”

當然，對許多身陷醜聞的丈夫們來說，默默支持自己的妻子仍舊是重要的公衆支持者。例如前紐約州州長艾略特•斯皮策在去年因承認召妓而招致尖銳批評後，妻子希爾達無言地伴他左右。

不久之前，美國前第一夫人希拉里•克林頓和丈夫、美國前總統比爾•克林頓一同度過了醜聞風波。在上世紀90年代末期，克林頓與前白宮實習生莫妮卡•萊溫斯基發生婚外情。

而最近，伊麗莎白•愛德華茲在宣傳回憶錄《堅韌》時，公開曝料自己的丈夫出軌。她的丈夫約翰·愛德華茲在去年美國總統大選中曾參選民主黨候選人。

Vocabulary:

bilk：to defraud; cheat（詐騙）

weather the storm：克服困難，度過難關