“A lipstick comes in many shades, but a bitch comes in one, or none!”
A strong voice that reflects a personal experience or so it appears, Swara Bhaskar brings to us the story of every young girl.
The Poetist, an upcoming show by TLC, has millenial women share what they feel in verses. And Swara Bhaskar is the first one to set the ball rolling.
As Swara sits across a mirror, dressing up, she confidently speaks out on the beauty norms women adopt that are nothing more but an attempt to “conceal, remove and repeat”; all the while transitioning from kajal to waterproof mascara so that we look pretty, even when crying.
For women, even wearing a red lipstick comes with both appreciation and judgement from the society, and it is exactly such things that Swara highlights through her recitation.
From the irony of nude make up to the pain of high heels to the concept of ‘appropriate’ dressing, Swara talks about every beauty norm and the trouble with them- hard to follow, harder to forgo!
Poetry has helped express thoughts that we often can’t put down in straight words, and these lines spoken by the immensely talented Swara Bhaskar are a reflection of how the focus on external beauty often keeps us from letting our inner beauty shine.
And as Swara reminds us in the end, no matter how much we conceal, remove or repeat the choice ‘to be or not to be’ will never be with us.
Watch the video here: