Why Adolf Hitler Hated Red Lipstick?
Red lipstick: a fashion statement or a political one?
For hundreds of years, red lipstick has been worn by women as a means of expressing themselves, with different shades used to express different meanings ranging from confidence, courage, strength, sensuality, and rebellion.
The first representation of red lipstick dates back to ancient Egyptian times, but even then it was not socially acceptable and most women who wore it were seen as prostitutes, or as being associated with “mysterious, frightening femininity.” As a model, fashion designer, and American vedette Dita Von Teese famously said,
Heels and red lipstick will put the god into people.
History and Symbolic Power
In the early 1900s, several American suffragettes like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began to publicly wear bright red lipstick with the primary purpose of shocking men who condemned the fashion statement for being ‘sinful,’ ‘impolite,’ ‘heretical,’ and ‘sexually amoral.’ American author and female activist wrote,
