PAGE TWO
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1943
Priorities Be Damned Women Need 'Em
By HARRIET ROUSE
You, the male of the species, can probably never quite appreciate the great potentialities of that small cylinder some two inches long and one half inch in diameter which is a permanent object on the beskirted dresser and in the feminine purse.
This small tube might well be considered the fountain of the female personality and, some say the—ah—source of her at any rate, its im-^A.
appear. At any rate, its importance to a girl's general state of well-being is inestimable.
Historically I daresay it is hard to trace the lipstick's origin. Indeed, so inherent a part it is of the womanly habit that I should not be surprised to be told of The Original Lipstick owned by Eve,—perhaps even before the apple. At any rate, I seem to recall some mention of jars of sweet smelling rouges in the Egyptian world which would attest to its early invention.
After some centuries of persecution at the hands of the more puritanic, during which time it persisted in the secrecy of milady's boudoir nevertheless, the lipstick has come into its own in this machine-age world. Samples of the most exclusive brands were included in a Time Capsule recently buried. Is that not proof of its essentiality?
I shiver to imagine our modern civilization without lipstick! The
courtly red accent on a girl's lips certainly has some brightening effect on a life that is dreadfully drab at times. It puts style and character into a face that might otherwise be one of the humdrum mob. A military red mouth adds dash to the finest Molyeaux or Schiaparelli creation. Demure pink beneath a froth of veil highlights the latest brainchild of the ingenious Suzy.
And, too, the baggy sweater and nondescript saddle oxfordes are lost without the scarlet accent of lipstick. The Hedy Lamar droop of Laana Turner curve or one of a thousand other patterns appear on women's faces, each of them a hint of the wearer's personality, her taste, her skill, and the making or breaking of her handsomeness.
But even more important, the lipstick has played a major part in modern history and sociological development. A bold statement, perhaps not scientifically correct. But I will go as far to say that woman suffrage would have failed, at least been long delayed, without that symbol of bravery, the lipstick.
No doubt you have heard it said by some lady acquaintance, "T'd feel undressed without my lipstick!" It is not just a major article of her apparel she'd leave at home; it's her very confidence in herself that would be missing.
The lipstick is of greatest moral encouragement to a woman. Psychologists might say that it was a screen to inferiority complexes or that women have idolized it, endowed it with mystic symbolism. I give no explanation, but simply present the truism: From the tiny lipstick flows faith in self and consequently the strength and force of modern womanhood. That approximately one square inch of volume can be the source of such power.
The clerk arranges before you all the exciting, shiny, and brightly enameled tubes. Then, uncapping each one, she carefully rubs a little of the ointment on your hand; crimson, pink, brownish, blue-tinted, dark, natural, pure red; and such fascinating names! Dramatic Red, Appleblossom, Nutbrown, Gypsy, Rico, Cyclamen, Midnight, Flare Red—
even just window shopping, at the lipstick counter.
But aside from the foregoing practical considerations, there's a romance in lipstick (the connotation of this term being synonymous with adventure, not suggestive of Cupid). Right now I can think of nothing so thrilling as shopping.
As she selects each new "favor" another entirely heavenly odor tickles your nose, all the latest scents. It is an experience which, in the modern idiom, is definitely out of this world. When you finally decide on the lipstick or sticks (one must have a wardrobe of them nowadays) you take the little treasure home. What pleasure the glittering case, the smooth rounded stick gives you! After an expedition like that, I can see no possible joy in being a lipstick-less male.
Official Publication of the Summer Session
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Louisiana, Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Editor Dale Robinson
Business Mgr. Betty Lou Perkins
It is for these reasons and perhaps others that the lipstick is of such incalculable worth to a woman, It is her artillery, her line of defense, her Red Badge of Courage.