“I just wanted to convey a message to my relatives, that makeup or lipstick is just a way to look good, it doesn’t define women’s character or masculinity of a man.”
Pushpak sen, hailing from Calcutta, India, is a digital content creator. A picture of him went viral a few days back in which he was wearing red lipstick and his social media post stated that he sent that picture to his relatives along with the following message ‘good morning, get well soon!’
His motive behind sending this message to his relatives was to make them feel guilty as they made fun of his mother in one of the family gatherings where she wore red lipstick. He felt enraged over his cousins who are otherwise well educated but rather than condemning the act, participated equally in making fun of his mother.
According to pushpak, his mother really likes to get dressed up but she always felt reluctant to wear red lipstick due to the fear of society. This year, as his mother’s birthday approached, he insisted that she should put on her favorite red lipstick on the occasion without caring about what people would think because the society, he assumed, has progressed a lot and people are not as narrow minded as they used to be. But the incident proved him wrong.
He emphasized that red is just a color!! A color cannot define someone’s character, neither my masculinity is that fragile to be shattered upon putting on a red lipstick. He said in his post, that a bearded man like me has worn red lipstick as a symbol of solidarity with all the mothers, sisters, daughters and everyone who don’t associate themselves to a specific gender, who don’t believe in gender roles and who are sacrificing their wishes in order to avoid the toxic criticism and character assassination by the society. He also urged men who are somehow associated to the oppressed women to support them.
He says, “I just want to make my relatives realize how narrow minded they are. How it reflects a sick minded culture and how important it is to cure that toxic ailment.” He also believes in speaking out loud about whatever is happening wrong around, without any sort of fear, only that, he believes, could bring a change.
Pushpak is being praised by his friends and other people on social media but he didn’t receive any response from his relatives. He said that there are many possibilities how they had reacted to my message, they might be in complete shock, speechless or might be making fun of me. Regardless of their reaction, he thinks that it was nevertheless important for me to tell them that they will not decide how someone should live his/her life.
Leave a Reply