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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   21287 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 4, 2026

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I've been watching a lot of TikToks recently and I've been shocked at how many women on there have their nails done. Growing up I've always had a strong "ick" for manicured hands and I remember being grossed out by a cousin who visited my home who had her toenails painted in red. I've always assumed doing one's nails is something uneducated, trashy women do and although I never consciously revisited this assumption, the years I spent in academia definitely did not contain enough notable counterexamples to force me to reexamine it. Am I deluded, or do most other men also find painted nails gross & icky? For years I've always thought that this would be one thing that women do but had no idea how unattractive most men find it. Has there been any study done on the increasing popularity of women painting their nails? Pretty sure the answer is zero lol

It's the exact opposite for me, when I see (rarely, but much more often in the last couple of years) women without nail polish on it immediately sends a negative signal about her. Now if it's a random person on the street I can rationalize a reason for it (busy week, unavailable technician etc), but broadly I see it as an "unkept" signal, not as viscerally disgusting as armpit hair or leg/arm hair which is genuinely disgusting to me, but close to say unironed clothes. Fortunately that's very rare in Eastern Europe as opposed to Western countries. I would genuinely refuse to date a woman who doesn't color her nails. Unpolished nails seem like man hands to me.

I also echo most of you here with a preference for short/shorter nails as opposed to those fake, long and pointy nails with added decorations. I see it as trashy. Unfortunately, you'd see a lot more of these than anything else. But as far as colors go, I would say that I see it as very feminine and youthful when manicures/pedicures have bright colors as opposed to "neutral" ones such as black, beige/nude etc.. Basically, I see nail polish as a signal for not only femininity but also the amount of how much a woman cares about her appearence. I also have developed a pretty good heuristic relating to nail color: muted colors tend to be chosen by quiet, shy women while more colorful choices mean more liveliness, openess to experiences.

I hope I don't sound needlessly antagonizing or offensive when I say this, but I honestly cannot fathom you guys who do not care about nail color. Like even guys who prefer natural nails I can almost understand, as people will have preferences for anything (see armpit hair above) but to not care? That's incomprehensible for me.

Nail polish is quite arousing for me, but only if the nails are reasonably short (say, no longer than 1/4-inch past the outer end of the cuticle.) To me, it signals unashamed embrace of her femininity. A lot of my female classmates at school had them when I hit puberty 45 years ago. It seems a lot rarer nowadays for some reason.

My heuristic, though, is that the longer the nails are, the lower the IQ. Especially if there's "nail art" or even fake jewels on there, like on an ad for Klarna that was on a display at my local mall for awhile. I mentally picture women with inch-plus nails as having a room-temperature IQ and being obsessed with social media (of which most of her posts consist 75% of emojis, plus those moronic abbreviations like "u" and "ppl").

Chiming in that I think it's cute for a younger woman specifically to get her nails painted, though not extended. Gross in older women.

However, either way, my first thought upon seeing them is "Wow that can't be good for the endocrine system." When my wife entered her baby-making era she gave up nail paints and polishes because she couldn't find any that were both effective and nontoxic.

I teach computer science and so I look at a lot of people's hands as I watch them type on the keyboard. I'd guess that about 1/3 of female students have nails long enough that they cannot type comfortably on a keyboard, and this meaningfully impacts their performance in my classes. (Foreign-born women do not have this problem; only American-born women.) I don't see any painted nails though, just grotesquely large nails.

The median parental income at this school is $500k/year, so these are pretty upper class women.

Did you grow up with sisters? Nail polish itself has always been a pretty neutral concept to me, like wearing hats. Now certain types of nails, and hats, certainly can signal things. Long false acrylics have a reputation for low class, black is a signal of either goth or bisexual but just a subtle gloss is pretty common in my fortune 100 company.

Personally as a guy, I have a mild preference for no makeup and no painted nails, but mostly I don't care either way. Body shape and boobs and anything which signals willingness to engage in sexual behavior (to some limit, at least) all play a much larger role.

Have you considered the possibility that women striving to appear beautiful are not trying to be attractive to men but competing in the female status hierarchy, where men are mostly spectators?

What men find hot is not much of a mystery. I think that the median woman is well able to visit onlyfans, find that most of the top view performers have not elaborately painted fingernails, and conclude that she should probably spend her money on tops with a larger cleavage rather than manicure if her problem is that too few guys are hitting on her in a bar.

The thing is, 'to few guys are hitting on me' is probably not a problem women have, generally. If you are somewhat female presenting, guys will ask you out (I assume), no matter if you are wearing a burka or a see-though top with a lace bra underneath.

For people generally, working on their appearance goes way beyond trying to look hot, it is a form of self-expression for many. Kids often have preferred clothes, and painting your fingernails seems a straightforward continuation from that rather than anything sexual.

There are certainly class dynamics involved, with piercings, tattoos, makeup, skincare, waxing etc signifying which class you belong to or strive to belong to. I also think that dressing overtly slutty is seen as a defection by other women, and punished, so there is no arm race towards dressing like a hooker in most social settings.

I have the opposite instinct. Growing up rural, long nails were something that only the gentry class could do. It didn’t make sense for the working class women to have something as fragile as long, manicured nails. There’s a reason that “Oh no, I broke a nail” was a punchline in Temple of Doom. It was the ultimate display of a pampered naif being exposed to the mildest bit of adversity for the first time.

I have the opposite instinct. Growing up rural, long nails were something that only the gentry class could do. It didn’t make sense for the working class women to have something as fragile as long, manicured nails. There’s a reason that “Oh no, I broke a nail” was a punchline in Temple of Doom. It was the ultimate display of a pampered naif being exposed to the mildest bit of adversity for the first time.

This reminds me of Scott Alexander's barber pole theory. Upper class people do something to signal that they are upper class; lower class people start copying it in order to look classy; and upper class people need to do something else.

In my opinion, at the moment, in the Northeast US, long nails are seen as trashy. If I am waiting in line at a bank, post office, etc., I will generally try to avoid any clerk who has long nails. Because there's a good chance she will give me the "Bon Qui Qui" treatment.

This is a funny one. I'm generally pretty conservative about appearance (preferring men to have hair above their ears, women to have hair longer than their shoulder, no tattoos for either sex, one pair of small earrings in women and minimal jewelry overall).

But the two places I think are fine to go nuts are hair colors (unnatural colors are cool within the length guidelines) and I love all sorts of weird nails long short, painted, bejewelled, natural is fine too.

For myself, getting nails done was a thing that went along with fancy/formal occasions. We seldom went to a salon but we would make a big production of picking out nail polish that matched our dress and painting each other's toes/nails the day before a wedding or dance.

Someone who always has their nails done up strikes me as someone with too much time on their hands. Whether that's because they are upper class or living off the dole, it could mean either. Upper class people have more "taste" and make sure their nails don't clash. They also probably get more silica/boron in their diet and have stronger nails to start with.

Why do upper class women get more silica/boron in their diet?

Better water and food quality.

Boron is mostly found in fruits and avocados, which are generally "middle-class and up fare" in America. Silica is found in fancier mineral water.

Maybe I'm wrong here but I get the impression that nail quality is worse for people in the lower classes, which is why they love their press-ons. Meanwhile, I noticed my nails getting more brittle as I aged and started drinking Fiji water a couple times a week and now have great nails.

Middle class and up is a much bigger group than upper class.

Boron is mostly found in fruits and avocados, which are generally "middle-class and up fare" in America.

Boron content varies with the soil where the crops are grown, but 1.5 oz of raisins have almost as much boron as half a cup of avocados. Two ounces of peanuts or a cup of refried beans have a similar amount. Raisins, beans, and peanuts are hardly middle class and up fare.

You think lower class Americans are eating raisins? Or frankly, beans? If Americans ate fruits and cheap staples like beans in any measurable amount there'd be a lot less obesity and hand wringing about "food deserts"

Uh yeah I do think lower income people eat peanuts and beans. @hydroacetylene back me up as the resident lower income Hispanic knower.

hand wringing about "food desserts"

Well, the popularity of food desserts is definitely a big problem for obesity.

Beans and cornbread are a common staple among the rural working class, as is chili.

Peanuts are also a common snack food, typically salted, although cashews and almonds are more popular outside of baseball games. Rasins have more of an age disparity, older people love rasins and dates, younger people don't. It's also a fact that American rasins and dates contain a lot of sugar, and the idea that eating rasins would prevent obesity is a bit silly.

Avocados have an association with urban liberals because they like to use it as a butter substitute to add fat to a sandwich or toast; outside of this usage, most Americans have had and enjoyed guacamole.

It's true that vegetables and even fruits are less common than they ought to be, but the cause of obesity has far more to do with sugary drinks, high fructose corn syrup in everything from ketchup to Wonder bread, and cheap, sugary snack foods than it does with the servings of fruit and veg Americans eat. It's an engineered problem of the palate.

Nail quality is also seriously affected by dermatitis and other skin conditions, and cases of atopic dermatitis and psoriasis are on the rise along with allergies. When my hand eczema was untreated and severe, one of the key indicators of the severity of the condition to my dermatologist was the pitting of my nails. There are lots of things that affect nail health; not all of them are class signifiers.

Avocados have an association with urban liberals because they like to use it as a butter substitute to add fat to a sandwich or toast

It's not really a butter substitute, you wouldn't have that amount of butter on a sandwich unless you are @Tretiak. The appeal is the flavor and creamy texture.

Poor Hispanic people eat beans. Poor white people do not(or, indeed, vegetables of any kind). Both mostly get peanuts in candy.

Nails are the best example of female fashion that really isn’t for the male gaze. Women love to say they are wearing miniskirts for themselves or whatever, and it always makes me roll my eyes, but when they say that about vile half inch claws I believe them. Idk maybe some men like it, but I don’t think it’s many.

The revealed preference of Swifties and Arianators implies that miniskirts etc. can be a status performance for other women more than a sexual display for men.

When two bull moose square off, they’re just locking horns for the fun of it and have no eye towards the female moose off to the side right? They grow those horns for pure intersex competition.

There's a massive difference between painting nails with a normal color which is pretty normal and not a class indicator in my experience (the edge case being brighter reds which I think can stand out a little much), and finger nail extensions which are decidedly low class. If your fingernails make it harder for you to operate a keyboard or phone, then (regardless of the class indicator) I will think less of you.

I can't recall actually seeing any women with painted nails recently, but I definitely wouldn't call painted nails "gross and icky". I would impose a much milder version of such condemnation on dyed hair, though.

Perhaps this website's recent discussion of plastic surgery is relevant here.

I feel it is a matter of pride. People are supposed to be proud of how they look. Even if they acknowledge that they don't look the best, they should still feel some attachment to their face.

Going through a plastic surgery is "humiliating", it shows an willingness to sacrifice parts of yourself for validation from others.

The same argument applies to hair color (and to skin color, in a hypothetical scenario where somebody decides to dye his entire finger). But nobody cares about fingernail color (it's the same for everybody), so that is an acceptable target of modification.

I definitely agree with you. I'm went to a very high class college and have now come back to a very mixed class place. I'm seeing this in my daughter. She sees her teachers and some friends with extremely trashy long painted nails and tattoos and gaudy jewelry and makeup, and wants it herself. She's internalized that these things are beautiful, and what adult women do, and not that it's trashy and derived from things that prostitutes do to signal their availability to men. I wish I could influence the way she thinks, but she's too young to understand, and I know any attempt at trying to control her in this regard will backfire 100%. All I can do is let her know on occasion that I don't really think it's beautiful, and hope that she'll eventually come to understand.

But I think one of the key insights for me that I didn't understand before I had a daughter is where feminists come from when they talk about how women wear makeup for themselves, not men, and "I can dress however I want but that doesn't mean I'm a slut and it shouldn't influence at all how men treat me". I guess I've learned that they do internalize some of this at such a young age such that they don't understand that these things, when done by a grown woman, send an overly sexual message to men. I can only hope my daughter comes to understand this, and values her natural beauty and a prudent presentation before she reaches adulthood

these things, when done by a grown woman, send an overly sexual message to men

This has historically been the case, but if it becomes so widespread in the younger generations, surely that association is bound to fade from too many false positives?

It hasn't yet. And besides, some of these things, like wearing makeup and showing more skin and wearing clothes that accentuate certain parts of the body more or make them look deceptively sized are actively tapping into sexual signaling pathways. You can only fight biology so much, in my experience.

I think this is true about some things - revealing clothing, certainly; red lipstick, sure, the sexual symbolism is obvious - but I don't especially think it's genetically hardwired that artificially-long bright-blue nails are sexual. You can still argue that "women prettying themselves up" taps into sexual instincts in a broader way, but I don't think it's inevitable that painted nails should be seen as "slutty" in a way that elaborate hairdos or colorful (but not immodest) dresses aren't. I'm pretty sure that's just cultural.

I don't disagree with you about nails, unless men evolved to have sex with tigers or something. But for whatever reason, it does signal "trashy slut" today, and that may or may not go away over time.

Back in the day if you wanted to find a more sexually available woman in a nightlife environment you would absolutely look for tells like: wearing red, big hoop earrings, heavy makeup, big nails, cleavage etc etc.

Three things

  1. I work in financial services in a large city, in my yuppie social sphere, almost all the white collar women either get their nails done, or paint their own nails. Your impression that it's "trashy" is wildly out of date*, much like thos forums opinions on tattoos. To note however, all of them typically get tasteful pastel colors and the size of their nails is "mildly longer than a man keeps his, with an almond tip".

  2. I do not give a singular fuck about painted nails. I do not know a single man who gives a fuck about painted nails. It's pure inter-sex competition. I'm pretty sure every anxious striver yuppie woman plays the American Psycho business card scene in their head when she sees someone with "nicer" nails than her.

  3. *the gigantic fake nails that to my understanding are very popular amongst the African American community, are incredibly trashy. To my boy brain, I hate how deeply impractical they are. To my (limited) aesthetic taste, I also hate how garish they are.

Early in my career I had the great pleasure of being on-boarded by a lady with ~2 inch long nails. It was absolutely hilarious to watch her attempt to navigate a laptop trackpad and keyboard. She didn't even use a mouse! Psycho behavior.

This is similar to my observations. Hispanic women with working class mothers also like impractically long nails.

I note that much of US Hispanic culture seems to emulate African American culture

I recently witnessed a tiktok of a Dominican heritage American (I use those terms because I imagine she was born here, not in the DR like her parents) going on a rant and she sounded like she was doing a bad AAVE impression for laughs but that's genuinely how she talks

That seems like a strange thing to have such a strong reaction to, and although you're getting a few comments in agreement I do believe if you go outside you'll find most men are either indifferent or enjoy it to some degree. Seems like a weird autist thing to get disgusted by painted nails.

It will get worse. As of now preteen girls gulp on content of youtube beauty influencers, and they are all-in when it comes to beauty products and the rest of it. Including the usual extremist pipeline from here is a night procedure for soft skin to > use homemade creams for early teenage girls to prevent aging. In fact the trend is so strong that it seeped over to the male side of social media with looksmaxing influencers like Clavicular who practice "jaw smashing" - hitting oneself with hammer to create the chiseled Chad square jaw and other nonsense.

Whatever you do, don't come to Scotland. I'm fine with nail polish, in general, but the nail extensions you can see in the trashier parts of the country are so long and garish they should probably count as edged weaponry.

I've always considered brightly painted (red or purple) shortish nails a Boomer thing.

Otherwise, I am quite similar to you. I don't mind French manicure or dark nail polish on fingers, as long as the nails have a pleasant oval shape, no nail extensions turning them into talons or chipped polish on short nails.

However, I don't claim that it's a universal thing for all men. Surely there's a depraved fetish community somewhere out there.

UPD: https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses/679/ is the only study I could find, and it's only a student's thesis.

UPD2: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380748975_The_Chromatic_Influence_An_Investigation_of_Stereotypes_Surrounding_Nail_Color

I would say I mildly dislike it. A relatively subtle job, like a manicure, can look nice, but anything in bright colours I find a turn-off.

I'd hazard that it is among the many, many instances of fashion that are about either women competing among themselves, or women just amusing themselves, rather than anything to do with men.

Mostly neutral, although all other factors being equal I'd prefer no painting of nails. Garish colors are a turn off.

This is mostly because it seems fairly ubiquitous. I'd guess 90%+ of women get their nails done at least once a year.

Neutral to it, but some women like it as a class signifier. As in, I am elite enough not to need to perform manual labor, the proof is in my delicate fingernails.

Not a fan of sharp colors like red, that can look like a streetwalker. Low key designs and colors that are barely noticable are the best, they can have good artistry but are more pricy.

I am elite enough not to need to perform manual labor, the proof is in my delicate fingernails.

This is the same reason others see it as low class - it's announcing "I'm in a position where people could mistake me for a manual worker, so I need to do this to distinguish myself". Just another example of the barberpole of fashion.

So, per the barberpole theory, OP is worried about being mistaken for the sort of people who are worried that they could be mistaken for manual workers?

It's class anxiety all the way down

No, I don't think the average man is disgusted by painted nails. I find the Empress Dowager Cixi-type nail extensions to be silly and impractical but have no visceral reaction to them, despite being on the extreme end of the prudishness spectrum when it comes to other types of body modifications e.g. tattoos, piercings, and dyed hair. I've also seen nothing to indicate that this practice is gaining in popularity in the real world.

I never had a sense that painting your nails in general was lower class behavior, and my mom, who is an engineer, often had painted nails when I was growing up (and still occasionally does.) Maybe it's a regional thing? Perhaps looked down on because of the vanity of focusing on your appearance in this way?

Now, what I do consider somewhat lower class is incredibly long nails, or fake nail extensions. My mom painted her finger and toenails, but she didn't keep her nails impractically long. She had work to do.

Maybe it's a regional thing?

At least internationally, for sure. Ironically, women in France almost never wear "French manicure", but anecdotally I'd say wearing nail polish in a muted color on short nails is more common than in the anglosphere. Practically all French (or western European women in general) I can think of at least sometimes paint their nails at home, and wouldn't even get acrylics for their wedding.

Yeah basic nail painting/manicures have been common enough in my lifetime I don't even really notice them. Long, inconvenient nails feel like far more of a sticking point to me.

What level? Massive impractical extensions or just general nail painting?

For me the ick factor increases in proportion to the degree to which the appearance departs from the natural shape and color of the nail (with probably equal weight being given to color and shape) so that I'm not nearly as repelled by so-called nude nail polish

Same ick factor for me, I've noticed it growing in popularity with some small distress.

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