“A rounder nail is more elegant,” celebrity manicurist Kimmie Kyees said in the LA Times. “But then there are some people who love a super square shape with pointy edges.” Kyees cited Kim Kardashian as one of the celebrities who sports square nails.Because it's not really about the male/female distinction here. It's about different types of women. Put down you sexism detector. Pick up your cattiness sensor.
But “Squared-off at the tip, her high-gloss french manicure never varies at all, and acrylic extensions help her to achieve lengths that are visible even from the nosebleed section,” wrote the Huffington Post’s Christina Wilkie and Lauren Rothman. “We’ve even heard them clickety-clacking against her debate podiums a few times, which means the rest of America heard it, too — even if they were unaware of where the noise was coming from.”
Unsurprisingly, there has been no discussion of the length, color or cleanliness of Bachmann’s opponents’ fingernails.
October 20, 2011
Can we talk about Michele Bachmann's fingernails? We never talk about the male candidates' fingernails.
Feminist analysis marches on claws its way forward:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
48 comments:
"Cat Fight"
I love to imagine those nails digging into my back during the throes of...
never mind.
I don't know about the appropriateness of it, but would err on the side of not. It strikes to the heart of the differences between how men and women view members of their own gender. Sorry, ladies, but you guys are far more brutal about it than we are, for whatever reason.
I suppose roughly equivalent would be a male candidate's hair. That seems to come up quite a bit and it's probably brought up by the same shallow people.
Pick up your cattiness sensor
Exactly what I thought, halfway through the post. Cripes, why do we do this to each other? Fingernails...you know, I couldn't care less.
MEEEOOOWW!
You want me to worry about the opinion of somebody named Kimmie?
If one of the male candidates showed up with a french manicure, or red nail polish, there would be plenty of talk.
“But then there are some people who love a super square shape with pointy edges.” Kyees cited Kim Kardashian as one of the celebrities who sports square nails.
There.. they just want to call Bachmann a porn star.
If one of the male candidates showed up with a french manicure, or red nail polish, there would be plenty of talk.
That being said, Eddie Izzard said, quite seriously, in an interview that he would like to get into politics.
I have to admit I noticed her nails in a clip of one of the debates recently. The squared off French nail thing was sexy about 20 years ago when I first saw it but it seems less so now.
I don't recall noticing Sarah Palin's nails, but I do remember thinking she had incredibly sexy hands. When she was shooting a rifle that is.
The message Bachmann's manicure sends me is that she is careful in her grooming, and that has always been something I've found attractive in women. I don't really care if she gets the acrylic extensions or not, or has them squared off or not. I've always thought the prettiest thing a woman can wear is a smile and I've also always thought women underestimate how important just being clean and well groomed is to their attractiveness.
And obviously none of that has anything to do with being president.
It's all about the length of the nails.
A woman President with long nails could be under the influence of Vietnamese agents implanting listening devices.
Those nails could hurt a hog if jerking it.
Long nails, squared off tips, french manicures, fake nails...TACKY, TACKY, TACKY.
Whenever I see women with such nails, I shudder in revulsion, and wonder how they can have such bad taste. It looks like "hillbilly hi-fashion" to me.
I heard somewhere that she has like 23 kids.
Put down you sexism detector. Pick up your cattiness sensor.
Wonderful.
From that photo, her nails look very similar to Michelle Obama's.
I could never run for office. My nails look like hell.
You know that the male candidates are probably also getting manicures, right? Just not the long fake nails or the polish...or the notice.
She's working a new Up Do Too!
What about her hair?
I bet she clips her beave too
From that photo, her nails look very similar to Michelle Obama's.
OH, NO YOU DI'INT!!!
I could never run for office. My nails look like hell.
Ha! My thoughts exactly. And I can't abide the fake ones.
Fingernails?
Sometimes, fingernails sound terrible scratched over a blackboard.
Michelle Bachmann wasn't just a religious "lite-weight." There was a totally other purpose! She was the ball you hit on a pool table ... when you want to knock another ball into the pocket.
She was the "insider's" answer to Sarah Palin. Much more accessible to the press, too.
Is it a love story?
Well, all of us, a piece, just get one vote. And, a majority of American's, at least a little above 50%. Get to pick who becomes the president.
Sometimes? We cast aside a good man, like Truman. A time when the democrats really tried to run an intellectual man, instead. And, Adlai Stevenson had no chance against Ike.
Ike did you no favors.
But the "philosophy" of running this country is now very heavily weighted in favor of the Federal Government. Seems they have a "corridor" between Wall Street and the politicians in DC.
And, its harder to change this structure ... than just about anything else.
It seems the only message from the people is that they don't want to be taxed. Dubya ran on that one! Plus, he added "leave no child's behind."
The stuff that's advertised is manipulated. We get screwed every time we buy the "package."
It's not a religious experience.
How come NONE of the 8 contendahs for the GOP nomination ... refuse to discuss real events?
"Occupy Wall Street?" Doesn't contain their voters. No mention.
The military shenanigans? Won't get challenged. Lots of GOP voters right there!
Unhappiness? Usually bad times means people will tighten their belts. But they voted for FDR each and every time!
Hoover lost to FDR. And, General Douglas MacArthur (who should have put his foot down and kept Americans OUT of Korea! Got fired by Truman. Because he got all pumped up about being given a chance to do battle.)
Even brilliant men make mistakes against what can be perceived as "mediocre" presidents.
H.L. Mencken took on FDR. Alone. And, all his work just doesn't get read, anymore.
That's the difference between victory and defeat.
Actually it's not a sexist thing it's a classist thing. Long squared-off nails are passé. "Hillbilly hi fashion" indeed. In earlier hit pieces they also compared her eyelashes to Tammy Faye Bakker's. Unfair since Michelle Obama has also sported fake eyelashes.
Are any of the men nail biters? I would rule them out as candidates.
Are any of the men nail biters? I would rule them out as candidates.
What if they're pillow biters?
"Long squared-off nails are passé."
They've been hideous since they were the "new" thing. They're the fashion equivalent of the baroque, overdone decor one will find in Donald Trump's residence...exaggerated flash and filigree mistaken as "classy".
Would anyone use the word "catty" to describe men?
"'Are any of the men nail biters? I would rule them out as candidates.'
"What if they're pillow biters?"
Or Bill O'Reilly's dreaded ankle-biters?
"Would anyone use the word 'catty' to describe men?"
No: dickish, or just dicks.
@Robert Cook. Can't disagree.
Pot, kettle.
I don't mind fake nails as long as they're of a modest length. Too long looks fake.
Triangle, Ryan Braun is a nail biter..constantly chomping in left field. And, he's probably MVP..so don't diss nail biters.
Maybe women are unsuited for politics and journalism, if both the journalists, the pulchribloggers, and their customers allow themselves to care about such things.
Well, then again, Brooks got a raging ... over the crease in Barry's pants. So maybe it goes deeper than that. Or perhaps, shallower.
Thurber had the definitive analysis of women in The Feminine Types.
"Whenever I see women with such nails, I shudder in revulsion, and wonder how they can have such bad taste. It looks like "hillbilly hi-fashion" to me."
= class warfare.
I would love for the next president to have strong streaks of common sense and practicality. I noticed Bachmann's over done nails from the very beginning and it made me think less of her as a viable candidate.
Carol Herman said...
Dubya ran on..."leave no child's behind."
A futile gesture considering the Dems have the pedophile vote wrapped up.
But has she ever paid for a manicure from an illegal alien?
Are you kidding?
How many articles or snarky comments have been written about Hillary Clinton's hair?
Suddenly this kind of reporting (as silly as it is) is somehow off base?
S said..."Would anyone use the word "catty" to describe men?"
Elton John maybe.
Those nails are crying out for a long cigarette to hold with one set and maybe a beer in the other set. They just look tacky.
A policeman without his badge is not dressed right. And a trophy wife without long extended nails is not dressed right.
Do we want a trophy President?
Maybe, just maybe, somebody is a nail-biter. Very common. If you saw her fingernails worn down to the quick, you all would criticize her for that: oh, she's a neurotic, can't get herself under control, is tortured by the feminine disease of outward competence/hidden crippling self-doubt.
In that case, might as well put on some obviously fakey tarted-up nails, with glitter and little painted flowers and such. Have some fun. Go big, or go home. Moderation is for monks.
And for those of you who think it shows her as gauche or declasse' with squared nails, I'm about to pwn you. Working all those little iDevices with electronic touch screens is actually more efficient and precise with two corners on each finger. Try it, you'll see. Once you go iSquare, you don't go back.
So, if you're against squared nails, it just shows you're a last-century fat-fingered Neanderthal, too afraid to go all in with the latest tech. So get in that rocking chair!
How about short because you bite them?
Can a candidate have nails like that?
Does anyone look at nails aside from women who do their nails?
freeman, I cannot recall the last time I looked at anyone's fingernails.
If they are extremely noticeable, as in filthy, I might notice them.
But here we are with a war on, and an economy falling apart, and these idiots are talking about a Presidential candidate's fingernails because hey, she's a woman so she has to be evaluated for looks just like an anchor babe.
Post a Comment