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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Can we start an anti "nail" campaign?

999 replies

2rebecca · 01/06/2019 21:03

As a GP who frequently washes her hands, allotment owner and instrument player I really hate the trend for women to have immaculate nails that cost a fortune, scratch people and mean women can't do anything useful. Where t f did this horrible trend come from and how do we give women back the use of their wonderful hands?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
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BertrandRussell · 03/06/2019 22:44

Fair enough LimeKiwi. You do you.
One day you and Decomposing must share your secrets. You are the only two people I have ever come across who are never influenced by advertising, by societal expectations, by stereotyping or by any form of marketing. You should bottle what you’ve got- you’ll make a fortune. The rest of us mere mortals will be queuing up!

Holdthedamndoor · 03/06/2019 22:46

Anyone saying they dont think there was much nastiness on this thread either

Havent bothered reading
Being deliberately obtuse

Or simply ignore comments if they dont fir with their view of the world

LimeKiwi · 03/06/2019 22:47

Comments from the OP and other supporting her stance. As far as I'm concerned it's them ridiculing,shaming,shunning and belittling women. Reducing women and their lives and careers to the length of their nails

Well said
I'm also impressed at your list compiling Grin
That's just a few as well.

LimeKiwi · 03/06/2019 22:49

You are the only two people I have ever come across who are never influenced by advertising, by societal expectations, by stereotyping or by any form of marketing. You should bottle what you’ve got- you’ll make a fortune. The rest of us mere mortals will be queuing up!

I'm seriously not influenced by societal expectations.
I couldn't give a shit if other people think my usual look is that of the local scruff, or that I should be wearing heels, make up or doing my nails.

Holdthedamndoor · 03/06/2019 22:49

BertrandRussell I take it you are just being obtuse then?

They havent said they arent influenced they acknowledge it and also acknowledge, women can still make their own decisions.

You seem very good at avoiding what people are saying and, apparantly, not seeing response

DecomposingComposers · 03/06/2019 22:49

Or simply ignore comments if they dont fir with their view of the world

Yes, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

LimeKiwi · 03/06/2019 22:51

You seem very good at avoiding what people are saying and, apparantly, not seeing response

Yep!

Being deliberately obtuse
Or simply ignore comments if they dont fir with their view of the world

I think it's a mix of these two options

Holdthedamndoor · 03/06/2019 22:53

I also very much doubt they are the only 2 people.

I have short hair

Have hobbies that are generally more popular with men and considered quite violent.

Dont wear heels

Rarely wear dresses

Dont get my nails done

Rarely shave my legs or my pits

Do wear make up

So where do I fit. I can see so many women on TV with long hair. Doesnt fit my lifestyle, so mine is short.

Which is exactly what women do with their nails. Very long nails dont fit their lifestyle, they dont have them.

minou123 · 03/06/2019 22:53

well said, I'm also impressed with your list compiling

I would love to take credit, but it was actually Yourdrippingwithsaracsm list. (But I'll take any praise where I can get it Grin)

DecomposingComposers · 03/06/2019 22:53

BertrandRussell

See this is your mistake - I simply don't care what people think of me so their judgement of me is not important.

I like what I like and I choose what I want to wear or do. I understand that there are pressures from certain factions but we live in a free country - I don't have to succumb to those pressures, I am free to make my own choices.

LimeKiwi · 03/06/2019 22:56

I would love to take credit, but it was actually Yourdrippingwithsaracsm list. (But I'll take any praise where I can get it grin)

Grin Impressed with YourDripping then, and also you for re-posting for the one who haven't seen or are pretending they haven't any nastiness lol
Holdthedamndoor · 03/06/2019 22:57

I feel like I must be some super uber woman. Since I manage to avoid lots of things that the beauty industry tells me I should be.

I am currently sporting a black eye and bruised ribs, from my hobbies. Dont really remember l'oreal telling me thats what I need to be, to 'woman' correctly.

So as I am under the same influences. But then make decisions for myself, I must have a super power, if most women dont or cant do that.

DecomposingComposers · 03/06/2019 22:57

Holdthedamndoor

Looking around I think the majority of women are more at our end of the spectrum than at the ultra glamorous end. It just doesn't suit a particular rhetoric to acknowledge this because it lessens the claim that we are being oppressed by the patriarchy in that regard.

LassOfFyvie · 03/06/2019 22:58

You are the only two people I have ever come across who are never influenced by advertising, by societal expectations, by stereotyping or by any form of marketing. You should bottle what you’ve got- you’ll make a fortune. The rest of us mere mortals will be queuing up!

But millions of women clearly manage to go through their every day lives happily ignoring most of it or picking out the bits they want. On the "beauty regime" thread there is an absurd list of everything single the poster could think of which supposedly only exist to oppress women.

But you only have to look around any office, shopping centre, railway station, tube train, to see women of all shapes and sizes, wearing all sorts of clothes and shoes - some made up- some with no make up at all. The vast majority of women are not botoxed, silicon pumped, Barbies.

There is a certain strain of feminist thought which seems incapable of crediting women with enough intelligence, discernment and sense to flick through a copy of Vogue or whatever, see Carla Delevigne or Alexa Chunga or whoever and still think "nah, it's just fantasy, I'll have another Hob-Nob"

LimeKiwi · 03/06/2019 22:58

I'm a walking contradiction

I have long hair, no dye just my usual mouse which gets a comb and that's literally it
I like skirts and flowery dresses
I love pink
I hate high heels
I don't wear make up
I don't do my nails

LassOfFyvie · 03/06/2019 23:01

Cross post with Decomposing

Holdthedamndoor · 03/06/2019 23:01

Just to be clear. I dont think I am an uber woman. I am just normal. Especially amongst my social, work and family circle.

YourSarcasmIsDripping · 03/06/2019 23:08

Only back to take the praise.Grin

DecomposingComposers · 03/06/2019 23:09

I'm nothing special either.

I love dresses, but they annoy me
I love high heels but have arthritis so can't wear them
Love the look of make up and nail polish on other people but just can't ever make it look "right" on me

So, if I could I would probably do more than I do, but it really doesn't bother me.

minou123 · 03/06/2019 23:17

Erythronium

I was going to write a long post to answer you, but you'll probably twist my words and accuse me of oppressing another country.

I distinctly said The People's Rebublic of China may be an authoritarian regime - I know this because you quoted it back to me - but you decided to completely blank that part and then say I am defending oppressive regime.

If your way of discussing and persuading women to hear you views is to purposely miss part of someone's view point and then make wild claims, is quite frankly, shocking.

barelove · 03/06/2019 23:19

Aaaagh!

Can we start an anti 'Can we start an anti "nail" campaign?' campaign?

Erythronium · 03/06/2019 23:20

"Exactly. To a lesser extent. And given lots of men use products aimed at women, cause they are better. The figures are skewed a bit."

By a tiny amount. Men don't use beauty products. They shave and use deodorant and maybe some moisturiser. Maybe aftershave but you don't smell it nearly as often as perfume. That's about it. There are a tiny number of metrosexuals who use more products, but they are just that, a tiny number, even if somebody's grandad did have a manicure once.

"Doesn't it just? And look what we end up with - women with false painted long nails, whilst men escape the requirement to be decorative almost completely.

And that's the worst bit of patriachy being bad for men, because it ends up with some women choosing to do their nails?"

I don't understand the question. You seem to be trying to paraphrase me but I haven't said anything about the "worst bit" of the patriarchy for men. The patriarchy benefits men, it is men. There are plenty of "worst bits" of the patriarchy for women: men raping us, men beating us, men prostituting us, men destroying us in our millions in India and China with abortion and infanticide, men's wars, men's destruction of our environment. It's a long and incredibly ugly list.

""You can admit that men are complying with the patriarchy by not painting their nails, but somehow it's completely verboten to think that women might also be complying with the patriarchy by decorating theirs"

No I said there maybe be plenty of men who would paint their nails but dont because the patriachy gives them a view of what they are allowed to do and not allowed to do. I also said that nails are good example of how things were dictated to women in the past but not now. Because just as many (if not more) women on this very thread are telling you they dont do their nails and their lives arent impacted one bit. So great, women used to feel they had to. But now they can choose to and not feel judged if they dont. But then it turns out, they will be judged if they do, by some women."

Women are still dictated to. There is still advertising, there is still celebrities promoting beauty standards, there are still people judging a woman if her nails aren't up to scratch. Women are also encouraged to do it, with compliments and positive reinforcement if they have their nails done. You yourself admit that patriarchy has a standard for men. Well it has one for women too.

"Nails are one of the few areas that I dont believe women are pressured into doing, not any more."

The massive beauty industry trying to make a quick buck off women's bodies says otherwise. The advertising and marketing industries say otherwise. The existence of the patriarchy which created "masculine" and "feminine", the stereotypes that each sex are supposed to conform to say otherwise. Women in Korea say otherwise, so do many of us here. I've already said that I've faced pressures about my nails. I wasn't imagining it.

"OP wants to campaign against false nails. What's the final endgame there. Less women do it? 10% 5%.

She wants them gone."

Oh dear. So do I. Women before acrylic.

LimeKiwi · 03/06/2019 23:27

Oh dear. So do I. Women before acrylic

Why though? How is what other women choose to do for themselves impacting you at all?

Women before acrylic? Why? Why does it matter to you what other women look like?

Erythronium · 03/06/2019 23:28

"I was going to write a long post to answer you, but you'll probably twist my words and accuse me of oppressing another country."

Well that's twisting my words. I said that you were defending an oppressive regime. You were. You claimed that Chinese citizens would be offended by having there totalitarian country described as totalitarian. I pointed out that there are one and a half million of them who experience it exactly like that. Chinese women who were forced to abort their other children after having one during the one child policy, would also probably have something to say about the kind of regime they've lived under. The little girls who never had a chance to live would also probably have something to say, but they literally have no voice, having never been allowed to exist.

"I distinctly said The People's Rebublic of China may be an authoritarian regime - I know this because you quoted it back to me - but you decided to completely blank that part and then say I am defending oppressive regime."

You were certainly defending it against the charge of totalitarianism. Why would you do that?

"If your way of discussing and persuading women to hear you views is to purposely miss part of someone's view point and then make wild claims, is quite frankly, shocking."

People have been getting shocked and offended very easily on this thread. Can I be shocked then that you can't even be bothered to address the substance of arguments but resort to nitpicking? Have you really noting to say about that article on the Korean women who are publicly and actively resisting beauty standards and beauty regimes or is all you've got to say that there's no such thing as Korean women.?

Erythronium · 03/06/2019 23:30

"Women before acrylic? Why? Why does it matter to you what other women look like?"

It's a short hand way of saying women before patriarchal beauty standards. "Acrylic nails" is acting a metonym there.

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