Nail polish on boys

[Shamoy]

Apologies if this is in the wrong section!
My boys have taken a shine to my nail polish these school holidays and have even trying out all the colours each day :-)
I told them it's a school holiday thing as they go to a very strict on uniform catholic school and I wouldn't have thought nail Polish would be permitted.
However they both tell me that loads of children wear it and reeled off several names (all girls) to prove their point.
I have always told them that there are no girls colours and boys colours or girls toys/boys toys, just everyone likes different toys and colours and you can choose from all of them
Now I'm pretty sure the school won't like them wearing nail polish, but if they let the girls wear it can they tell the boys not to? Is it like skirts in that it's seen as a girls thing and they are allowed to differentiate the rules? Or am
I right in thinking that if it's ok for some to wear nail polish then it should be ok for all?
It's a primary school....

Yes I should ask them. I'm just imagining that they will say no it's not allowed on boys and I wanted to get it straight in my head if that's ok or not before hand so I know how to reply :-)

It ought to be allowed for both sexes or neither.

But the reality is that schools do have different rules, and you have to weigh up whether it's the kind of issue you're going to make a stand over, or just one where you're going to sigh and tell your sons that life isn't fair and that you hope they will grow up to be more aware of the concept of equality than that.

Do you not have a written list of what is allowed and what's forbidden? If there is a list, and it doesn't mention nail polish, then I'd be tempted to "assume" it's ok...

My DS3 likes his hair long, and one day he went into school with pigtails, because that was what he wanted. I couldn't justify why it would be okay for girls but not for boys, especially as it serves a function (keeping the hair out of your eyes). I half expected some children to ridicule him and him finding out about expected gender behaviour, or the teachers to mention something about it to me, but he came out of school with them still in! He hasn't asked for it again though, and at the time he was only 6 or so. However, I would do it again if that was what he wanted, possibly with a warning that he shouldn't use his pigtails as a distraction from schoolwork/attention seeking, and that it only serves the function of keeping his hair out of the way. He's much more aware of gender roles now, so now he might want to do it for a laugh, rather than out of innocence. But I would still let him do it. He's nearly 9 now.