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| Lip seduction |
Lip colour has, in the past, been used to highlight one's status, class and/or profession i.e. clown, actress, prostitute.
In Ancient Greek prostitutes who appeared in public either at the wrong hours or without their designated lip paint and other make up could be punished for improperly posing as ladies. The Venetians also did something similar and included prostitutes being forced by law to wear a yellow ribbon to identify their practising profession.In 1770 the English Parliament passed a law declaring that women who seduced men into matrimony through use of lip and cheek paints could have their marriage annulled, as well as face some serious witchcraft charges. Not a particularly female friendly law. Specifically, the legislation declared:
'All women of whatever age, rank, profession or degree, whether virgins, maids or widows, that shall, from and after such Act, impose upon, seduce and betray into matrimony any of His Majesty's subjects, by the scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high-heeled shoes or bolstered hips, shall incur the penalty of the law in force against witchcraft and the like misdemeanors and [their] marriage[s], upon conviction, shall become null and void.'
I know of some men who would like to add gel bras and chicken fillets into the legislation too!
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