From "When Did Bare Nails Become a Status Symbol?/From a 'Love Story' plotline to runways and street wear, minimal or nude nails are everywhere" (NYT).
Here's the Ovid he's pointing at:Every now and then, the NYT publishes something----that leaves me blinking in amazement. N U D E N A I L S Never in my life have I heard of such a thing! But no wonder. (1) I'm a guy (2) And I'm pushing seventy seven. Guess I've been out of the swim. Out of the loop, as they say. And now, here I am! --a veritable embodiment of high fashion. Because-- --I have never done anything with my fingernails. Except try and keep them short. If you play the piano (and I learned this when I was thirteen)-- -keep them nails short. They go clickety click on the keyboard. And mess up your execution of the more elaborate passages. Scales and arpeggios or what not. Roman poet Ovid had some advice. C A R E A N T T I B I S O R D I B U S U N G U E S. Which is to say: make sure bits of grit don't get lodged under your nails. And that's about it. But of course-- --he was talking to guys, not girls. And what counsel did he proffer the girls? I don't remember. Sorry! Thanks NYT.
Let your person please by cleanliness, and be made swarthy by the Campus; let your toga fit, and be spotless; let your shoe-strap not be too tight, let its buckle be free from rust, and let your feet not float about in shoes too loose; nor let your stubborn locks be spoilt by bad cutting; let hair and beard be dressed by a practised hand. Do not let your nails project, and let them be free of dirt; nor let any hair be in the hollow of your nostrils. Let not the breath of your mouth be sour and unpleasing, nor let the lord and master of the herd offend the nose. All else let wanton women practise, and such men of doubtful sex as wish to have a man.
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61 comments:
I am often chagrined by the women with fake fingernails that work in the restaurant industry around food prep. It's a violation and owners / managers put up with it because they don't want to be accused of being a raaaay-cist.
The five year old keeps asking me why I don't paint my nails. (Since she and her mom spend a lot of time, and effort, doing that.) Aside from saying that I just don't want to, I can't articulate a coherent answer that a five year old would understand.
nor let the lord and master of the herd offend the nose.
Anyone know what this means?
My lady regards needing her nails done like I regard needing pants. "I can't go anywhere like this."
..boys and Romans…
I remember watching my Mom and sisters always doing their nails at home. I understand now that's like doing your own surgery at home.
Respectability comes from classical piano, not nail crap. It took a while to get past the PC hype but this one is excellent Jeneba Kanneh-Mason.
Go that way, black women.
The eyelashes are a tell…
And they aren’t nails, they’re more talons.
Most men simply prefer nails the way God intended, this is a women on women thing.
In short, acting white.
Handel. Quarrel with classical piano as respectability if you can.
Ah, today’s dose of wisdom from the Roman Empire.
If I notice a woman’s nails at all, that’s never a good thing.
Most men simply prefer nails the way God intended, this is a women on women thing.
Like 90 percent or more of fashion and beauty stuff.
Black Fashion is Popular = Cultural Appropriation = Racism
Black Fashion is Unpopular = Respectability Politics = Racism
It's comforting to always know how a story ends.
Marcus Aurelius said, “Comfort is the worst addiction."
Ovid never had a chance to read The Meditations, and I'm betting black women won't.
I've heard several (male) friends mention they are into painted nails, um, toenails. They generally find women's feet in general to be a turn-on. While I can appreciate a woman's closely-cropped toenails and flat white nail polish, it's not a biggie for me.
And I could count on both hands (or 10 nails) the number of times I've ever heard a (male) friend speak admiringly of anyone's long, painted fingernails. Most men dislike them, at least in the bedroom, in my experience.
But it must be a thing, or it wouldn't be a thing.
Fashion Ouroboros
Diversity in fashion trends is a bloc culture.
And why dirt under the fingernails is treated with a moral failing. It signals a person who does useful things for work/life. The "sheltered lady" is a hierarchy of uselessness.
"The idea of the sheltered lady was of course difficult to maintain in a country in which 20.4 per cent of the female population were engaged in working for a living. This unhappy fact of life caused the moralists of the day deep concern. If there was a steadily increasing number of women working in offices, it was understood that they were victims of unfortunate financial circumstance; their fathers, poor fellows, were unable to support them properly; and it was hoped that their inevitable contacts with rude men of business would not sully their purity."
Allen, Frederick Lewis. The Big Change: America Transforms Itself, 1900–1950 (1952)
20.4 per cent of the female population were engaged in working for a living. This unhappy fact of life caused the moralists of the day deep concern. If there was a steadily increasing number of women working in offices, it was understood that they were victims of unfortunate financial circumstance; their fathers, poor fellows, were unable to support them properly; and it was hoped that their inevitable contacts with rude men of business would not sully their purity
This surely was an upper class or upper-middle-class neurosis, was it not? My grandma was born in a log cabin and raised on a dryland ranch, and was riding, roping and branding side by side with the hired cowhands by the time she was a teenager. If any of them had threatened her "purity" he would have been found hanging from a stout oak tree in a remote side canyon.
Back in the eighties, when I played in rock bands, I used to do my nails. I'd lay down a background of gold or silver, then diagonal stripes, overlaid to make them thinner. For the final black stripe, I cut half the strands out of the brush, to make it thinner.
Some men did seem to regard this, along with the silk chiffon scarves I affected, as less than manly. I don't recall any woman being doubtful about my sex. A few did ask me to do their nails. The problem with that, was that you can't do anything very active while your nails are drying.
Semper ubi sub ubi
"They generally find women's feet in general to be a turn-on....it's not a biggie for me."
Evergreen.
"We’ve been told our hair, nails, bodies, clothes are too much.'"
By whom? Who says those things? What is the context for "too much"? I think I get what she is trying to say, but it leaves a whole lot of interpretation up to the reader. This needs a big old 'said without evidence' caveat. Or maybe a 'the plural of anecdote is not data' type statement.
I predict if she got called out on specifics, she would drop a 'I'm so tired...' type of dodge.
Anecdotal allegations of social ruts wrought by popular cultural nuts.
Poor, poor women! (Sigh) What a tragic life they lead! Everybody’s always forcing them to paint their nails, or not pain their nails, shave their pubic hair, or not shave their public, etc. It’s a wonder they can survive.
Yeah, a great pedicure with great shoes and a restrained matching manicure works for a lot of men. Is she mad that white women are not copying black women’s style? Reminds me of women being mad that men don’t watch the WNBA; if you want it watched so bad, you watch it. There should be a word for judging other people’s preferences that don’t affect you.
I had a girlfriend many years ago who didn't wear make up of any kind. Me, "why don't you wear make up". Her, "Do you think I need to?". Me - drops topic,
They are fatiguing
Do not let your nails project, and let them be free of dirt
Was this the passage that so angered "Phaedrus" in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?"
Female peacocking.
"'When we decide that these spaces [i.e,, sheboon meeting halls] don’t matter,' she said, 'we lose rooms where women survive and take care of each other.'"
And a fine job you're doing in passing down and protecting the ghetto "culture."
Though "culture" isn't really the right descriptor.
loudogblog said...
"The five year old keeps asking me why I don't paint my nails. (Since she and her mom spend a lot of time, and effort, doing that.)"
I'd bet there are a few boys at school who paint their nails, hence the question.
I painted my nails with clear when I worked in a cheese factory, it helped keep them from splitting. I've carried nail clippers with me ever since.
@CJinPA:
"Black Fashion is Popular = Cultural Appropriation = Racism
Black Fashion is Unpopular = Respectability Politics = Racism
It's comforting to always know how a story ends."
Marketing a sports team with a violent American Indian/Native theme = racism
Marketing a sports team with a violent Viking or Roman theme = not racism
Fully ignoring violent black human warriors with sports team themes = not racism
Lautreamont noticed black dignity:
To scrape together my sentences I needs must employ the natural method, regressing to the savages so they may give me lessons. Simple and majestic gentlemen, their gracious mouths ennoble all that flows from their tattooed lips.
From the article: “Pristine, unpainted hands have long signaled a life of leisure.”
It was clever for the Babylon Bee to sneak one of their parodies into the NYT as news. Even better, no one noticed.
I dont care, but can you put the cellphone down. 24/7
Was this the passage that so angered "Phaedrus" in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?"
Pirsig was insane, you know, and his book is unreadable, or at least only readable with that fact in mind.
That's not my opinion of course, but his too:
“He was insane. And when you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he’s insane, which is not to see him at all.”
That's not my opinion of course, but his too:
“He was insane. And when you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he’s insane, which is not to see him at all.”
I did read the book, you know. I'm not sure exactly what the point of your remark was.
In my years as a CASA and social worker, I never met a black woman without $80-100 nylon, decorated nails and expensive extensions with ornate hair designs. As their kids got food stamp ramen and cheese, at best, while mom paid to have hair and nails. Meanwhile, one of the dads lived in housing we paid for in that household, and was statistically more like to rape the children with other fathers. If that's their culture, their culture is shit.
I actually clicked thru to the article and saw Morticia’s hand. The black lace and the tiny tattoos make all the girls down at the coven jealous. But the bad part is when bare long nails turn yellow on the ends, eewwwww!
As kid I've used sis's nail polish a few times
I'm 71. Things that didn't exist when I was mere youngster.
Nail salons. A hair salon, sometimes caller a beauty salon, might do some nail things, but that was it. Oh, and let's not forget Madge who soaked her customer's nails in Palmolive dishwashing detergent. In a beauty shop, not a nail salon.
Makeup stores (for the most part) There might have been a Merle Norman near you. That was it. There is one near us that I see on a regular basis. Lush, Sephora, and others of their ilk didn't exist. Upper class women got their makeup at Macy's or Gimbels or Marshall Fields or their regional equivalent. Middle and lower class from drugstores and the Avon Lady. For special occasions the middle class would wander into the fancier departments stores.
Eyebrow threading studios. Enough said about those.
The existence and continued profitability of all these shows the economy ain't all that bad.
“Disparity of Cult said...
Semper ubi sub ubi”
Always good advice
Many, many years ago I prefer a woman with slightly longer fingernails, painted -- with the hope she would rake them across my back. Turned out there was little or no raking during sex and, if I was lucky, a good back scratching. Nowadays I have a bunch of bamboo backscratchers I bought at The Dollar Tree.
Marcus Bressler- yeah me too.
I love a French Tip style of nail for women. Semi-nude I suppose.
I think if I could speak Jive I might understand this.
“Christopher B said...
I think if I could speak Jive I might understand this.”
Stewardess, I speak jive.
I was just about to say that
Having worked in foodservice for a long time, having dirt under the nails is a sanitation hazard.
I have been to a nail salon nearby for toe trimming. It was a very pleasant experience. No decoration of the nails, just heavy duty trimming after a pleasant soak. I recommend it to one and all.
As for the nails on my hands, I started biting them when I was five and didn't stop until just before I reached fifty. It was working in the garden that allowed that success. Dirt under the nails is a great negative incentive not to stick fingers in my mouth and bite the nails. The Roman was right.
Due to an entirely inflexible spine, I go to a Vietnamese nail salon. Being female, they tease and torment me into toenail polish that I do not want. I finally made a peace treaty: no polish in winter, french manicure in summer. It does look very nice. I worry about the workers being around solvents all day. Tip in cash quietly, slipped to the worker, or else she won't get it.
If some of you men here use "massage parlors," or Atlanta's contribution to world culture, "lingerie modeling studios," my secret cash tip theory still applies.
@ Aught Severn - It was me. I once told a black woman her weave was magnificent and wondered aloud if I could pull off the look.
@ Tina Trent - Mitts off men's sexuality! I feel triggered by your use of quotation marks around massage parlors and lingerie modeling studios! Nails for you, but nothing for men. is it? And how is one supposed to what lingerie to go for this season without seeing it presented on a well-manicured hoof?
Beauty is a tax on women.
Oso Negro: Oh, please come off it. Each state has an euphamism. They were brothels for sex for pathetic men. I used to visit a close but fucked-up friend/tenant who worked in those places on Cheshire Bridge Road, Atlanta. Look it up, liar. I would stay for hours talking to the prostitutes, obviously not dressed for sale. It was sociologically interesting. I talked to many women. She screwed her customers because she had to and died of an overdose. Yes, I tried to stop her many times. She was a very skilled if damaged Associate Professor of Literature at a very good college. The sirens and you dirtbags called her. I'll never forgive myself for not doing more, though I institutionalized her twice. What's your excuse? Who's your wife? We could chat.
You feel triggered, Oso? I pity the wives and daughters in your pathetic life. Have the manliness to use your real name, creep.
Tina, you are out of control.
No, Oso, I am in mourning for reality.
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