Red Lipstick- Part 2

I haven't worn red lipstick for a while- mostly out of laziness: that stuff gets everywhere. Alas, the last time I wore it resulted in the first Red Lipstick story. Maybe it's just sheer dumb luck I experienced the same sort of crap again seven months later.

I went out with a couple of friends tonight to see a film (Mad Max is the most intense, awesome two hours of film ever). Because we were also going to a nice bar beforehand, I decided to put my favourite red lippy on. I was just wearing the sort of dress I'd wear to work. Nothing revealing, nothing fancy.

But it seems like these are a distraction for some:

Even when they're attached to a face with an expression like this:

I caught a late train home and managed to grab a seat, immediately getting my phone out to play Go (an ancient Chinese board game I've recently become mildly obsessed with). No sooner had I taken my phone out and started a game than the man sitting next to me- about thirty years my senior- leaned into my personal bubble of space.

"Got to make sure you reply to those texts, right?" He drawled.

"Yep," I said shortly, not liking his snarky tone and not bothering to correct him about what I was doing.

"I can reply to some of them if you want?"

"No, thank you," I said, again keeping it short but (foolishly) polite.

"Come on, let me help you reply to your texts."

"Nope," I said, more than a little more curtly.

"Aww come on, don't be like that." He leaned over a little more.

This time I completely ignored him, calmly placing a stone on my virtual Go board instead.

The man then turned to his mate, sitting on his other side, and snorted loudly, "People on trains these days. They have no class... no matter how they look."

I'm not joking: that's what he said.

I flat-out ignored him, even though I really, really wanted to verbally tear him to pieces. Of course, it was just bait to get me to respond.

Throughout the journey this man kept on and on at me, while I held my ground. The last straw was when he turned to his friend and asked what stop he needed to get off at: it was my stop. Right at the end of the line.

'Sod this,' I thought, and got off the train at the next stop, catching the next one home.

Why am I so sure it was the red lipstick? Because once again, as I mentioned in Part 1: my hair, my clothes and the rest of my makeup was as it usually is. The only thing different about my style was the colour of my lips- and I never, ever get this sort of problem when I'm not wearing it.

Why is red lipstick a green light to be pushy for some people? It's just a sodding colour, after all. I'm going to go ahead and say it: it's because for some people (and it's just a few select arseholes, both male and female), see red lipstick as a great big sandwich board with 'I'm easy' written on it.

Am I going to stop wearing red lipstick when I feel like it, because of this?

Heck, no.