The statement “I am a woman, therefore I am brave” can easily be dismissed as a Twitter-worthy aphorism. But instead of taking it at face value, Grocott’s Mail took the idea for a walk.
The statement “I am a woman, therefore I am brave” can easily be dismissed as a Twitter-worthy aphorism. But instead of taking it at face value, Grocott’s Mail took the idea for a walk.
We visited five women with very different backgrounds and asked them about obstacles they overcome every day.
Zimkhita Gqoyi, 26, is a petrol attendant; Yandiswa Tsotsa, 22, a cashier; Annalize Bosch, 54, a book-keeper; Priscilla Boshoff, 46, an academic and Olivia Yaw, 34, a hairdresser.
These are self-made women who aren’t fearless, but go head-to-head in confronting the daily obstacles life throws at them.
From petrol attendant Gqoyi who has to change her posture to “pass as a boy”, to convince customers that she too can do this job, to Ghanaian hairdresser Yaw who, far from home, caters to patrons who are often not very hospitable.
Intense life experience has taught all these women to try be comfortable in their own skin.
None of them are regular lipstick wearers, so this week we asked each of them to rouge their lips in an act of defiance and as a symbol of everyday bravery.
This concept was not born of a sorry attempt at the annual tokenism of Women’s Day, which on some level implies that we are not equal to men.
What it does play on, with its tongue firmly in cheek and colour on its lips, is the idea touted by a cosmetic brand’s ad campaign – ‘Maybe she is born with it’ – the notion that external beauty is a reflection of the inner being.
But unlike the Maybelline models, the daily grind of our five respondents’ lives is not necessarily glamorous.
They have to harness what they’re born with every day to survive and thrive, just like the 20 000 brave women who took their 100 000-signature petition to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956. Today and every day, they show up and march on.
Ultimately, in a consumer-driven society where the perfectly painted face has become a ticket for a seat at the grown-ups’ table, the subversion of that notion gives lipstick a newer, braver, non-glam hue.
