Clueless men have been offering unsolicited advice about women’s behaviour and appearances since the beginning of recorded history. In public, in private, even in writing — it’s happening all the time, and it is definitively not okay. And as important as it is for women to stand up for themselves (very), it’s just as important for other women to stand alongside them, too.
As Yahoo Beauty reports, that’s exactly what happened on New Year’s Eve, when a woman began casually applying makeup on a train. You know, that thing many of us do. But the man accompanying her determined that her actions were unacceptable and told her to stop. Out loud. In public. On a train.
Other female passengers overheard the exchange, and responded in silent solidarity: Every one of them then felt the need to touch up their makeup, too. One of the women summarised the incident in a single tweet, which has since garnered over 1,000 retweets.
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Bloke has just told the woman he's with not to put makeup on on the Tube. Every other woman in the carriage is now fixing their makeup.
— rosamundi (@rosamundi) December 31, 2016
@rosamundi I get the invasive music & loud phone call gripes but how does putting make up impact on anyones life?
— Andrew Curagh (@andy3974) December 31, 2016
@rosamundi a strange man on the bus once told me "putting make up on in public is very unbecoming of a lady"
— Beth Twiggles (@BethTw) December 31, 2016
@BethTw quite. I don't normally do makeup in public in case I poke myself in the eye, but we all treated it like a declaration of war.
— rosamundi (@rosamundi) December 31, 2016
Unsurprisingly, other women replied with their own similar experiences, with one adding that a male stranger on a bus once told her that putting on makeup in public is “unbecoming of a lady.” He must not have heard: We're nasty women, and we're damn proud of it, too.
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