Finger Nail Polish

One of my daughters is 12 and has recently discovered finger nail polish and fake finger nails. She has been gluing on this fingernails and then putting coats of polish on them of various colors. Unfortunately the glue comes loose sometimes and she tries (unsuccessfully) to get out of doing the dishes and various other tasks so as not to ruin her nails.

I really love fingernails that are painted. My daughter was doing my mother's nails who lives in a nursing home, and I let her do mine. It was a light shade of pink. I didn't realize that there is a bit of maintenance involved in caring for ones nails, as the polish started to scrape off unevenly. My partner told me that one has to apply extra touches to it perhaps on a daily basis in order to keep them looking nice, and re-apply the whole thing once a week.

I must confess that I think it would be worth the effort. I would like each nail to be a different color scheme. I think I would like extra flairs also, little dots of a different color, or little designs. I think I finally understand why there is a nail shop in every strip mall.

There is unfortunately a problem. As a male, this is not very well accepted in our culture. Perhaps if one were Goth, black would be accepted, but Goth is hardly well accepted either.

When I had my fingernails pink for a week, there were times I was self conscious. No one said a word, and I do not know if anyone actually noticed.

Am I a coward since I have not stepped forward into expressing myself in the way I really want to in regard to my nails? Why should I care what the dominant culture thinks, or what people in my life think? For one thing, I don't want my appearance to be an issue that might lose me money in my business. But this concern tires me. I have long hair and finally feel that it probably has added as much to my business as it might have subtracted. But painted finger nails? I do not know.

Why is it that women can wear anything they want but men have all these restrictions. No fingernail polish. No dresses or skirts. Long hair is "perhaps" fine as long as it is pulled back in a pony tail. What is it with our species? Males of other animals generally are the decorated ones. Compare the richly colored male cardinal with the very subtly colored female. To decorate oneself a male can buy a more expensive suit that actually looks very much like an inexpensive suit. One can wear a colorful tie perhaps, but who really thinks that a tie is comfortable? Or creative? Pretty old and tired design, in my mind. Why not a little flowing silk. Why does such a desire translate into cross dressing? A woman can wear a shirt and tie and we do not label her as a cross dresser.

So I am tired of these restrictions, but I also do not want to focus on this as a major political issue. I just want to decorate my finger nails. Am I making too big a deal out of this? Perhaps I ought to pull myself together and paint my nails the way I want and shut up about it. Anyone out there in blog land have any thoughts about this? [3160]