Mean criticism or blunt truth?

“they ask me why I treat Victoria like this. But how else can I treat her? She doesn’t wear pantyhose, doesn’t put on nail polish, doesn’t wear lipstick. She only puts on some powder in the morning and goes straight to work.”

appearance, women, lookThis is a translated fragment from a Russian talk show doing a brand comparison on pantyhose. The host of the show, Sergei Stillavin, seemed to be joking around and criticized another member, Victoria, for not being like the rest of the women.

I haven’t uploaded this part of the show yet, only managed to get part 1 up on the blog. This show chooses a product or service to review and compare, anything from renovation materials to candy brands.

Maybe because the host was so blunt while on air this show no longer exists as there were some complaints.

After I read it, I thought it was a mean thing to say out loud, but right away thought that I am not too far away from how he describes Victoria. Yes, I was wearing pantyhose, but I had no nail polish and no lipstick. Only some powder, just like her.

I got a sense of discomfort deep inside, I don’t even know why. So after I took a nice bubble bath I put on some pink nail polish on my toes. Am I now closer to being like the rest of the women according to Sergei’s comment?

For past few weeks I’ve been quite stressed out. I jump out of bed and think of all the work I need to do. Sometimes I forget about nail polish. Sometimes I even forget that I have nails to begin with. It never gets to a point that I’ll show up in jeans and runners somewhere in the city, but for styling like hair and make up I may not have any time. While reading  Sergei’s comments I got a bit of wake up call.

In a strange way I agree that small touches like polished shoes, neat hair, make up, and properly sized and pressed clothing can make a big difference.  I can totally see some feminists say that it doesn’t count, but we do get judged and therefore treated based on our appearance.