To think there's some things you just don't do on public transport...

[SamanthaBrique]

...and flossing your teeth on the tube is one of them?

@GrannyHaddock wrote : Would you like your neighbour in the train to clean their teeth and spit on the floor? Eat a fry-up? Do a poo? Just getting ready for the working day.

But these things are either a) making a mess and spreading bodily fluids, which is an infection risk, and which you might tread in, or b) smelly, and you can't get away from pervasive smells.

Putting make-up on is neither smelly nor spreading bodily debris / particles, so is not an infection risk, and neither should it be messy.

Just look the other way, rather than making ludicrous judgements about other women who are getting on with their lives and doing you no harm.

Nail polishing is smelly as several posters have mentioned. Good manners are about not annoying or upsetting people around you, even if they are not actively harmed.

OhNoes Fri 11-May-18 20:15:23

Oh god, some of these (the pukey, pissy, wanky, bogey ones) are giving me palpitations!

That's interesting..... all the things that involve bodily fluids / mucus - but not keratin.
I don't file my nails and if it's just one broken nail I'm clipping down and I don't chuck the piece on the floor than I'm surprised peole are bothered - I don't lock myself in my bedroom or bathroom to do this at home, either (thinking about the definition given upthread).

I'm with you on nail polish - it's smelly, but that's not make-up.

"Good manners" are also about being tolerant and not imposing your views on other people. Many people are annoyed by things which do them no harm, and I'm glad we don't have to take any notice.

For example, some people might be annoyed by any of the following :

• seeing a same-sex couple holding hands, or a woman feeding her baby milk, whether from breast or bottle, or seeing someone wearing clothes they don't like, or women with heads uncovered, or women showing "too much" flesh.

Many of the people who judge others for these innocuous things will claim that it's "just good manners" to act in accordance with their own preferences. But it's hard to see how a coherent system of manners could dictate such specific prohibitions when they are all victimless "crimes" in that they hurt no-one, threaten no-one, don't assault anyone's senses, create no mess, and are free offended can easily avoid them simply by looking away.

"and are free offended" = and the people offended can easily avoid them simply by looking away. Sorry, typo.

I find people eating near me far more offensive than putting on makeup. Eating involves noises and smells.

Give yes, nail polish is grooming not make-up and best carried out in the boudoir. The travellers with good manners do look away, read the paper, say nothing and impose their views on no-one.
None of the other things you mention would annoy me, in fact mostly the opposite. What I am noticing is people acting "unclassily", if that's a word. What used to be called "common". Eating while walking around would qualify.

How is it 'super organised and efficient' to put make up on in public? Just get up earlier and do it in the privacy of your own home

"How is it 'super organised and efficient' to put make up on in public? "

Uses up time that would otherwise be wasted, I suppose. I stopped doing it after getting dirty looks (in another country), but it's obviously the more efficient option.

granny haddock

Well I’ve certainly done a poo on the train but obvs not in my seat!
I would and have eaten on public transport, often ravenously if I’ve spent yet another workday with no lunch or if we are indulging in train wine with nibbles on a long trip.
Acting ‘unclassy’ or “common” as you ( and my late Grandma) put it doesn’t cross my mind nowadays with regard to these activities. So much to worry about in the world without silly stuff like worrying about sins like eating whilst on the move.

How is it 'super organised and efficient' to put make up on in public? Just get up earlier and do it in the privacy of your own home

Does it really matter if you put your make up on in front of strangers? Their approval or not matters nothing to me. It’s for whom I’m meeting and interacting with at the end of the journey. What’s the problem?

Yesterday morning a man got on my bus, sat next to me and fell asleep leaning on me. He smelt horrid, had obviously just finished an all-nighter (possibly a night shift somewhere but not somewhere clean from the smell). He sat down, spread his legs really wide so I had to scrunch into a smaller space and then he fell asleep and slumped against me. I had to get up a move.

When I was 18 or so I was on a virtually empty night bus home when a guy got on and sat next to me and started massaging his dick. I jumped up and ran downstairs, I've never sat upstairs on a night bus since.

Also on the bus, I was saw a lady suck the snot from her baby's nose and spit it on the floor.

I've seen BJ's etc on the bus late at night too, but as it didn't involve me and I was fairly drunk at the time, I wasn't too bothered by that.

@GymBot no way!!! I am gobsmacked at reading ewwwwwww 🤢🤢

Has no-one said .......... TRAVEL! It's late. It's dirty. It's cancelled!

Gwen, travel is precious uninterrupted reading/music/thinking time, Applying mascara is not the only option. Interesting that the travellers abroad did not look away politely, but glared and you stopped.

It has reminded me of a time on a train in Portugal when the people I was travelling with (grown-ups), had their feet on the seats. The conductor came past and shouted at them.

Bloke on Farringdon tube station who used to arrive on the platform every morning shaving his face with an electric shaver.

Girl next to me on a long haul flight who got the nail polish out

Woman on a commuter ferry using her Babyliss Big hair.

Woman who puked on one of the old Bakerloo line trains. She got off next stop while the rest of us watched the vomit run up and down the carriage in those little wooden grooves

Lady who ran for the bus and got on without realising for some time that her right boob has worked itself free of its moorings and was flapping gaily in the breeze

@ChardonnaysPrettySister Nope, never foes my nail dust travel onto the person sat next to me.
I suggest you don't file your own nails and visit a salon if your dust is travelling that far.

Evangeline, hair and nails are much the same substance. Would you mind if a man next you trimmed his nose hair, assuming none of it dropped on you?

But Evangeline what do you think happens to your nails when you file them? And where do you think the bits go?

No need to be rude. I happen to think it’s spreading body parts onto fellow passengers is not a good thing, you seem to disagree.

My nails,

Oh sorry,

My nails are none of your business but you apparently think you have the right to make your part of my commute.

Also, why do you think nail technicians wear face masks?

Because their technique is all wrong?

"Interesting that the travellers abroad did not look away politely, but glared and you stopped."

Staring is socially acceptable in the country I was in and not considered as rude as here.

'Obviously the more efficient option'? - er No, the more efficient option is to set your alarm for 10/20 min earlier and do it in front of a proper mirror in a room that's not moving

"'Obviously the more efficient option'? - er No, the more efficient option is to set your alarm for 10/20 min earlier and do it in front of a proper mirror in a room that's not moving"

Er no, that would mean 10 minutes less sleep. Just because you don't like people doing their makeup in public, doesn't mean it's not more efficient.

@GrannyHaddock @ChardonnaysPrettySister
Trimming hair that is surrounded by snot and bogies is different to filing a nail that is washed.

As I said before, they go on a tissue or my trousers.
You seem to think mine and other people's nails are your business so I shall make yours mine too.

Also, why do you think nail technicians wear face masks?
I've seen them wear face masks in cheap salons with chinese/ Japanese technicians where they don't clean their instruments.
When I got my nails done I'd pay for them to be done properly and they wouldn't wear face masks.