Forum
Notifications
Clear all
IECT Group Discussion Forum
8
Posts
4
Users
0
Likes
191
Views
Topic starter
April 20, 2021 9:45 am
CNN Style has launched a dedicated Beauty section. Read more Beauty stories here.
In 1912 thousands of supporters of the suffrage movement marched past the New York salon of Elizabeth Arden. The cosmetics brand founder, who had just opened her business two years earlier, was a supporter of women's rights, and she aligned herself with the cause by handing out tubes of bright red lipstick to the marching women.
Suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman loved red lipstick for its ability to shock men, and protesters donned the bold color en masse, adopting it as a sign of rebellion and liberation.
Suffragettes from Massachusetts marching in the streets of New York City (circa 1915) Credit: FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images
"There could not be a more perfect symbol of suffragettes than red lipstick, because it's not just powerful, it's female," said Rachel Felder, author of last year's "Red Lipstick: An Ode to a Beauty Icon," in a phone interview. "Suffragettes were about female strength, not just strength."
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. "Red lipstick is truly a way to trace cultural history and societal zeitgeist," Felder said.
Portrait of beautician and cosmetics entrepreneur Elizabeth Arden (1947) Credit: Hulton Archive/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Until lipstick was popularized in the early 20th century, red lips were often associated with morally dubious women: impolite, sexually amoral, even heretical. In the Dark Ages, red lips were seen as a sign of commingling with the devil. The makeup "was associated with this mysterious, frightening femininity," Felder said.
Then, Felder's book explains, as the American suffrage movement adopted red lips, their international counterparts did, too.
As women's rights movements spread across Europe, New Zealand and Australia, with British and American organizers often sharing tactics, from organizing marches, to hunger strikes, to more aggressive militant strategies. And this solidarity extended to their makeup. Inspired by her American counterparts, British suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst favored a red lip, which helped spread the symbolic gesture among her fellow activists.
Though suffragettes popularized the red-lip look in their day, Felder notes that there was already momentum to normalize lipstick among women more generally, as they dropped restrictive corsets for brassieres, and started to adopt more streamlined silhouettes, designed by the likes of Coco Chanel.
ATS anti-aircraft spotter near London (1943) Credit: Reg Speller/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Four female cipher and switchboard operators (1945) Credit: J. Wilds/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
After the suffragettes wore red lipstick, the exuberant flappers of the Roaring Twenties followed suit. And while suffragettes may not have been solely responsible for popularizing a painted lip, they embodied the idea of the "modern woman" in Europe and America, Felder pointed out.
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." J. Howard Miller's illustration of Rosie the Riveter, the cultural icon who was used to recruit and empower American female factory workers, notably had cherry-daubed lips.
'Rosie the Riveter' by J. Howard Miller for Westinghouse Electric (1942) Credit: MPI/Archive Photos/Getty Images
US Army Nurse Corps recruiting poster (early to mid 1940s) Credit: Hulton Archive/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In 1941 and for the duration of the war, red lipstick became mandatory for women who joined the US Army. Beauty brands had capitalized on the wartime trend, with Elizabeth Arden releasing "Victory Red" and Helena Rubenstein introducing "Regimental Red," among others. But it was Arden who the American government asked to create a regulation lip and nail color for serving women. Her "Montezuma Red" matched and accentuated their uniforms' red piping.
"Wearing red lipstick for a woman in that era was so linked to... a sense of feminine self-esteem," particularly, "resilient and strong female self-esteem," said Felder, who has herself worn the beauty staple nearly every day since high school. After the war, classic Hollywood actresses like Elizabeth Taylor added a layer of glamour to the confident look.
Beauty expert Helena Rubinstein illustrating how make-up can be applied to flatter individual contours (c. 1935) Credit: Orlando/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Today, other protest symbols for women's empowerment have become widespread, notably the pink pussy hat that dominated the 2017 Women's March; and the habit from "The Handmaid's Tale" which has been worn internationally for women's causes, including pro-choice demonstrations.
Yet red lips still pack a punch. In a viral image from 2015, a Macedonian woman kissed an officer's riot shield during an anti-government protest, leaving a red kiss mark in a poignant moment of rebellion.
Actress Elizabeth Taylor touches up her lipstick (1948) Credit: Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In 2018 in Nicaragua, women and men wore red lipstick and uploaded photos of themselves to social media to show their support for the release of anti-government protesters. They were reacting to activist Marlén Chow, who defied her interrogators by applying red lipstick.
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.
By wearing red lips, protesters all over the world have tapped into the same power the suffrage movement once plumbed a century earlier. In this bold, defiant beauty statement, their legacy lives on.
Note: This article was updated to remove the word 'suffragettes' when referring to the protesters marching past the Elizabeth Arden salon in New York in 1912, and now refers more broadly to supporters of the suffrage movement.
Topic starter
April 27, 2021 4:13 pm
During World War II lipstick was one of the best selling cosmetic women bought. Cosmetics were hard to find and not quite as popular. There was a war going on and there was a great deal of tension. As soap was rationed lipstick was the go to makeup. Lots of things women bought were rationed such as nylon stockings. Women went to work in jobs that only men had. The way to look feminine was to wear lipstick. Elizabeth Arden did make red popular so it would match uniforms worn by the Women's Marine Corps Reserve
May 4, 2021 4:52 pm
I knew about the red lipstick movement because of mainly the "We can do it?" posters but I didn't realize that it was something that was made kind of made mandatory for women to wear once joining the Army at that time. I think it's a really cool idea that women were encouraged to be pushed to remain feminine in a job title that can seem to be so male driven.
May 5, 2021 12:04 am
i think red lipstick will always be kind of symbolic to woman hood. it has had so many different meanings for so many different people its amazing to think that something as simple as lipstick can make people view someone as a completely different person than if they were to not wear it. red lip stick is bold and i think just that connotation it has makes wearing that color that much more empowering and freeing.
May 5, 2021 12:06 am
@kaytlynmolinaiectskin-com i also think thats interesting they made them do that but i think its interesting because women werent allowed in the military for a long time because well, they were women. and when they are allowed to join it is mandatory they were making up reinforcing the feminity that was once not even allowed in the military
June 6, 2021 8:29 am
@jaydensugickiectskin-com I agree. If I'm not mistaken right now women in the military if they are to wear makeup it has to be very minimal. You are't suppose to looking at a female and think "Oh wow look at that makeup." It has to be neutral and natural looking. So I think it was cool that they did this at that time. It went from "no women!" to women be allowed to come in and be very feminine.
Topic starter
June 15, 2021 9:36 am
I agree with Jayden and Kaytlyn that the red lipstick in WW ll was allowed. It was a new idea for many women to join the military. Also on the home front women were the factory workers and they remained feminine with that little bit of lipstick. Red is a power color
July 4, 2021 7:39 pm
It's so interesting to read about how red lips became to be the powerful statement that we know them as today. I never knew the meaning that red lipstick once held. Red lips still remain a powerful feminine look, and even the boldest makeup looks can always become more bold with the use of red lipstick. There is definitely no other lipstick color so attached to the ideas of femininity and power.
