Okay, so pouting, grimacing, making a moue and generally arranging the mouth to look sulky or seductive are no longer a job requirement as far as faces are concerned. Lips have retired from the party circuit. Under the Mask Regime, singing, talking, laughing and crying are strictly banned in public. In fact, if you lose your lips altogether, no one will notice.
Cupid’s bow, rosebud mouths, full lips and those with lip-fillers are now on a level playing field with thin lips, stiff upper lips, chapped lips, fat lips from playground bullies and lower lips that tremble at will. No need to slather on petroleum jelly and liquid foundation, lips with rips can go anywhere. Chewed lips, bitten lips, cracked lips and all kinds of lips now live together under a mask. It’s dreamy democracy in lip land.
On the plus side, one can relax about tics, twitches, buck teeth, hirsuteness if female, wispy moustache if male, as well as moles, bruises, hickeys and generally any unsightliness in the oral area. On the minus side, that is one vital communication tool gone. What one could subtly convey now needs urgent kathakali mudras.
We have to bite back our witty sarcasm, crooked lopsided grins, sudden twists to mouth, that thing we do when we have nothing to say but pretend we do, having practised before the mirror since college. Licking of lip, air kissing and going tch-tch under the mask is also not recommended. Gossip now has to be responded to with a widening of eyes, rapid blinks and the wave of a gloved hand.
Lipsticks, lip gloss, lip liners, lip pencils and lip brushes are walking away into the sunset—they may as well be crayons to write on the wall with. Everywhere in the world, nude lips are back in fashion; in England alone, apparently lipstick sales were down 49 percent last month. This is what businessmen in the field are telling each other: ‘Don’t put your money where your mouth is. Put your mouth where your mask is.’
As mask manufacturers scramble to get the look right—from ethnic to elitist, from printed to plain, from floral to geometric, from matching to contrasts, from surgical to arty—they are also trying to catch the fallout of consumers looking to fill the void left by the sudden absence of gobs. There is a mask where the maw used to be. For the average Eve, it’s bye-bye lipsticks and back to lip balms. As for when this arch organ of articulation and expression will be back in circulation, I can’t say. My lips are sealed.
Shinie Antony shinieantony@gmail.com
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