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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
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
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.
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