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[Alexandr Korol]

Like that clichéd topic — how women wear red because it’s sexual energy, blah-blah-blah — yeah, my mom touched on that too. I didn’t say anything to her about it. She’s partly right, but I just remember how I’ve always thought differently about it. In society, in the social context... Let’s put it like this: back in university, when I was with other guys and girls, and we saw, say, a girl named Lida walk by in a bright red dress with red lipstick, all my classmates — guys and girls alike — would immediately say, “Oh, she just wants attention, she’s lacking a man.” That’s how people in society would react. That’s the social norm — that if a girl wears red, it means she wants sex. Partly, yes — but not always, so I think we shouldn’t think in such stereotypes. It’s not always like that. But those kinds of rumors, those kinds of urban legends, always circulate online — that red for a woman means she’s calling men to her, that she wants male attention, that she wants sex. I won’t argue — I’m not a woman. I wouldn’t say that I liked a girl more just because she was in red. I’ve never noticed that in myself. But I decided to bring up this legend, this social rumor of the 20th and 21st centuries, because it really does exist. But I’ll say this: now I see it everywhere, even in every movie — who wears red. And how beautiful, and how amazing, that I truly do everything based on what I feel, from the heart — and I also listen to God — and those are the only guides I follow in life. That’s why I always trust myself. What I felt — let’s put it that way — is that if I know I’m connected to God, or that God told me something, then I follow it. And just imagine how interesting it is: now I’m planning to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen — though I haven’t yet found the time — and go through a timeline from 2006 to 2025, recalling in which months or years I preferred certain clothing colors. I want to find some sort of connection or pattern — what worlds I was in, what kind of clothing I liked to wear. I remember — imagine this — I wore red all the time until I was 18. And do you know thanks to whom? My mom! Well, I was a kid, I couldn’t buy my own clothes. But I went to school in red jeans — everyone pointed fingers at me, they didn’t understand what was going on with me. I had a red Chicago Bulls hoodie brought from America — I wore that too. I had all sorts of red caps, red shoes — Japanese ones — lacquered sandals, just like the ones that became trendy with girls a year ago. I was already wearing them when I was five years old. And back then, imagine — that’s how much I truly liked the color red.