Tuesday, March 03, 2020

On Red Lipstick!

What a beautiful writeup on an unusual topic.

"Throughout the centuries red lipstick has signaled many things, from its early use by the elite in ancient Egypt and by prostitutes in ancient Greece, to its status in early Hollywood as a symbol of glamor. In its many hues, this color on lips has been a mighty cultural weapon, charged with thousands of centuries of meaning.....

During World War II, red lips had their bold second act of defiance. Adolf Hitler "famously hated red lipstick," Felder said. In Allied countries, wearing it became a sign of patriotism and a statement against facism. When taxes made lipstick prohibitively expensive in the UK, women stained their lips with beet juice instead. As men went off to war and women filled their professional roles back home, they donned red lips to enter the workforce. It showed their resilience in the face of conflict, Felder explained, and offered a sense of normalcy in difficult times. "It allowed women to retain a sense of their own self-identity from before the war." 

Last December, nearly 10,000 women in Chile took to the streets wearing black blindfolds, red scarves, and red lips to denounce sexual violence in the country...."

Full article here:  https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/red-lipstick-history-beauty/index.html

No comments: