BBC removes article that says women who don't wear nail varnish might be white supremacists.

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/sep/30/bbc-removes-article-linking-bare-nails-trend-white-supremacist-standards-beauty

I think that's the gist.

It's so fucking barking mad I'm not actually sure.

I just can't with the BBC these days, just can't

They have totally lost the plot on so many subjects

Nothing surprises me anymore with them

there is clearly a trend in fashion away from all black-coded fashion and beauty.

The nature of fashion is change. Constant change. So is that trend fashion being itself, or something more sinister? The mini was kicked out for the maxi, short hair seems to be challenging long hair (thank God! I hate the tyranny of long hair), 90s supermodels were booted out for heroine chic and so on.

I have never decorated my nails since I was in my 20s. Make what you will of that.

My nails are always plain.

I would look pretty bloody silly as a white supremacist.

There’s always been that “trend”. It’s nice to tidy them up but not everyone wants colour and calling it “black coded” to have coloured nails is very American. I paint my toenails all the time because they’re not a pretty sight without it, and I try to keep my nails reasonably tidy, but short and filed, but I only paint them colours very occasionally, maybe for a party or a holiday. And it’s been the same since I was a teen in the 90s and first starting using it.

Yes I agree.

The sexism is unbelievable. Getting their nails done is expensive and impractical or even prohibited for a lot of professional women (eg in the health sector). Plastic nails, nail varnish and nail varnish remover are not exactly great for the environment. That said, I have nothing against women who have their nails done and who own nail varnish - I have some myself. However, to put pressure on women to get their nails done in order to avoid being called white supremacist is really not as progressively left as the BBC think.

Maybe people (of all races) just reject the nail art trend because it looks tacky and is really impractical ?
I wasn't aware there was a link to nail art and black/Latino women. I just know I don't like the look of it so if I was going to have my nails done I wouldn't consider nail art.

See also duck lips and 3d eyebrows which also look tacky imo.

It's classism first and foremost. The demographics are well known.
Having 'natural' amazing hair, skin, nails, teeth etc plus a slender (but athletic) body are markers of wealth. They are hard to fake without great nutrition, lifestyle and money. Subtle, imperceptible enhancements are expensive.
Overtly fake enhancements are (relatively) quick,easy, cheap and accessible. So the trend towards 'clean girl' aesthetic is a way of signalling your class.

I think it’s just symptomatic of how much pressure women and girls are under, how objectified we are. I don’t think it’s particularly progressive to suggest that it’s somehow wrong for individual women or groups of women to reject nail art. Some people like it, others think it’s tacky. Like leopard print. It’s always been considered superior to have “barely there” “natural beauty”. That is a class thing, I agree. I’m unconvinced it’s a race thing, especially in the U.K.

I think as soon as a trend becomes ubiquitous, and everyone can afford it, it no longer becomes a status thing. I've noticed that all the posher students don't do their nails as much, no fake eyelashes, even the trout pout is not in in wealthy young people circles, though there's lots of tweaking and surgery at older ages. I don't think wealthy women ever paid for flamboyant or very long nails though.

So everyone who works for the NHS is a far right racist now? 'Bare below the elbows'.

Righto.

But why is it so terrible not to want nail art when you go for a manicure? Why?

What is actually wrong with wanting to look like you have clear healthy nails?

As someone above said, if you go for extravagant nail art, it’s cultural appropriation, if you go for “natural looking” nails you’re a racist.

Some of us reject the natural aesthetic and the glam aesthetic in favour of the hopeless hedge-backwards aesthetic. It has fuck all to do with race. And probably class, I don't know.

I’m all for the hopeless hedge-backwards aesthetic😁

Black coded.
Euphemism for White supremacy.

Who's deciding all this crap?

it’s part of a wider trend of labelling all fashions and trends that came out of black communities as trashy. The opposite of them being “wholesome”. The natural beauty trend is heavily focussed on natural white beauty.

I agree that fashion, and elegance in particular, is more often than not a class indicator, but also a tribe indicator - think indie or goth, for example.
Elegance is usually associated with restraint. That runs as true in Accra or Lagos as it does in London or New York. The colour (or wealth) of the person wearing it does not define it - their choice in presentation does.

"Trashy" could well be the opposite of elegant. It is excess, exuberant, loud. My first real introduction to "trashy," and very long dramatic nails, was via the Essex show that grabbed for a while about 10/15 years ago. But they were white. The style was velour tracksuits, long, died blonde hair/extensions, very long nails and eyelashes, lots of makeup and big boobs. The Kardashians feature heavily in that realm too. All of it is the opposite of restraint - it is kind of like a conspicuous consumption - the more the better, the bigger the better, the louder the better.

That look, in both white and black communities has been going for a while now. Change is inevitable, especially in fashion. A move away from that is inevitable. I am not sure that the move itself is colour coded.

Me too. It was baffling.

I happen to have a short speech handy in which I bemoan the generally plummeting standards of SPAG in contemporary media. <clears throat>

Agree.

What's this black Labrador thing? I've seen it a couple of times now, so I've obviously missed something that's been in the news or on social media.

Was looking into sports clubs/classes with beginner veteran classes - was thinking fencing/epee classes but will now scour the web for this. DH would probably be supportive.

Am also chuckling at the nail art comments… as I booked nail art rather than the standard BIAB/gel colour for Christmas period. I was planning on having stars and Christmas trees for a laugh and then reverting to a traditional ‘french polish’ finish once my actual nails have grown out, but I am questioning my whole existence and identity as a middle-aged, middle class woman now.

Apparently perceiving the English country side as sitting around in pubs, in front of the fire with a black Labrador is far right (yes was in the news), I am yet to determine whether having spaniels, in stead, makes you soft right or whether having a banned pit bull would make you hard left, though.

Multiple people should lose their jobs in the upcoming BBC job cull for this article alone.

Some daft Labour MP associated them with the far right, apparently that’s what far right people fantasise about, being in a pub with their black Labrador.