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.

Sorry - I should have been clearer - I was being sarcastic/humorous about the risk of white women being charged with cultural appropriation if the perception is that its the preserve of Black and Asian women.

As someone who spent 3 years getting Biab manicures, I stopped because it was wrecking my nails and I couldn't afford it any more!

Definately not a white supremacist! 😂

Oh I get it. I was saying likely not now as white women have been doing it for many many years now to no criticism!

Aged 11 I was told by a teacher after the lunchbreak that I looked as if I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards. Aged 72 I'm still embracing that aesthetic, unpainted nails and all.

whether having a banned pit bull would make you hard left, though.

It would definitely make you hard. Probably well hard.

Some of us are assigned Northern at birth, remember.

Don't Northerners emerge from the womb clutching a black pudding so they can be observed rather than assigned at birth?

I saw this article and couldn't believe my eyes. However, bbc removes lots of articles, believe me. I used to do nigh shifts during Covid and noticed I couldn't find the same article in the morning and link which I would send someone- wouldn't work.

Better educated women have used minimal makeup and bare nails for years, they have confidence in themselves and don't feel the need to doll up with fakery to feel good about themselves.

Groan . Then this loon going viral who thinks only Irish people and their descendants should use milk products. Strange days indeed.

me too 🙈

Anyways what about all the slave work in nail salons??

Well, I didn't realise my lack of nail "care" makes me a white supremacist so every day is a school day. Think I'll stick to my natural nail beds, despite what the BBC work experience may think about that.

Interesting to read the fake nail look is associated with black culture. That passed me by - but I'm not sure that's the only influence.

I tend to associate the look with duck lips, thick fake brows, orange tinted skin and broom brush eyelashes. And I'd argue that that whole aesthetic derives from a combo of drag and porn where everything is exaggerated and extreme.

Taste is subjective and fashion, as always, reflects wider cultural influences and occupations. I think it looks completely awful, sorry, but many women clearly disagree. And wouldn't the world be dull if we all liked the same things?

Omg link😂 please

I'm not sure you can say the article calls it out. It reports one beauty journalist's opinions. They're pretty extreme opinions tbh - and that's what makes it a story. But it's not the BBC's job to call things out; where they went wrong was (apparently) failing to get anyone else's opinion. So this pretty wild take on a "viral" nail preference goes out unchallenged - and there couldn't be a more basic journalistic rule at the BBC (and other broadcasters) than balance. People say all sorts of mad stuff, and it's newsworthy because of that. But whereas the papers can take sides, broadcasters can't. This was just lazy journalism. How hard would it have been to get another opinion from someone else in the beauty/fashion world? Hello, is that Harper's Bazaar magazine? Alex from BBC News. Could we get an opinion from one of your specialists on a story about bare nails? Thanks! Job done.

I have always had my nails clipped short and unvarnished. Does this make me a white supremacist? I'm just pleased I can still wipe my own arse effectively in my dotage

I came here to say that! Many cases of people (mostly women) being trafficked into nail bars.

I also think having plastic glued to your nails the drilled off is madness. Potentially causes severe life long allergies & horribly unhygienic.

It might just be my line of work or my particular physical characteristics but my nails are filthy by the end of most days and it has always grossed me out that I women with semi or permanent manicures don’t see this under their nails for days or weeks or clean them apparently 🤢 (*white, middle class or as middle class as northerners can be)

When I first saw long acrylic nails Im sorry to say my immediate thought was “how the hell does she masturbate?”

Me too (re never doing nails
and finding false nails a bit yucky). All this time with my bare nails my main assumption was that people would think I was a feral beast that had let herself go but now I have a new fear that they will think I’m a white supremacist 🤣

When I was being induced I had a midwife with long false nails and the fear of her returning for her second shift to examine me was probably 30% of the reason I opted for a c section 😂

Can't make it work. But it's all over Threads etc. The same person says a lesbian bar , The Last Ditch , should be firebombed because they let customers make their own decision about wearing masks ? Getting a right pasting in the comments of course!

Sorry that reply was for @Annualsouptime

Other way round - hemlines go up in economic booms and down in recessions.

First I’ve heard of this and what a load of absolute fucking nonsense. Has someone not got the wrong end of the stick? This can’t be real, surely??

1. I’m too tight to pay for nail maintenance
2. It never stays on when I do it myself and chips and looks shit so I don’t ever bother, maybe once a year.

The worlds gone fucking mad!