Nails are a significant medium in society. They display a person’s beliefs and illuminate their social status. In addition, they rigidly define gender differences.
Nails publicly display a persons belief or their personality. For example, during Lindsey Lohan's trial she was photographed with a message defined on her nail entitled, "Fuck U". This only furthered investigators accusations that she was not remorseful of her actions. Pictures of her nails swarmed website blogs, newspapers, and magazines, and caused much controversy. This is a sole example of where nails communicate a persons beliefs. Katy Perry is often seen wearing nails that state PETA or support other animal rights organizations. Kim Kardashian painted "Reggie Bush" on her nails during his debut at the Super Bowl. These examples demonstrate individuals publicly displaying their personal beliefs, personality, or relationship through the painting on their nail polish.
Nails define gender differences in society. If a female has dirty nails, she is categorized as being less feminine than a woman who does have clean nails. Men rarely get manicures because they are seen as "too feminine". However, how are these gender barriers erected through the upkeep of ten measly fingernails?
Nails elucidate an individual’s social status. One can be perceived as wealthy if they have perfectly french-manicured nails. On the contrary, one could be defined as poor through dirty nails. They display the amount of wealth one has to allocate to personal grooming. If one is well groomed, one can afford manicures, which yields the individual to be wealthy. In Croteau & Hoynes, Stuart Hall speaks to the "encoding-decoding" model. Although he describes the model in terms of a marketer to consumer, I believe this model can be used through consumer to consumer. Individuals are encoding a message (nail polish) and the other consumer can decode that message (social status, gender, personal beliefs) as they choose. This model explains the thought process behind these mediums of
"fingernail communication".
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| Lindsey Lohan |
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| Kim Kardashian |
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| Katy Perry |
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| Joe Biden |
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| French Manicure |
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| Detailed Manicure |
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| Lady Gaga |
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| Soda! |
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| Dirty Nails |
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| Sexy Nails |
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| Sleek Nails |
I completely agree that nails say a lot about a person and whether or not they take the time to take care of them. In the past I had no interest in nail upkeep and would get a manicure from time to time. This summer I got gel nails and become literally obsessed with how they looked. This small change in nail upkeep I felt changed my entire appearance.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I like to get manicures whenever I can and I'm ALWAYS torn between the new "season color" and a french manicure. I love being up to date on style, but you really can't beat the sophistication of a nice french mani. The gender barriers are being broken as many professional men (my father included) gets a manicure or pedicure to keep impeccable hands when going to see clients. In my father's case, he'd rather have a professional trim his nails than himself, plus you get a mini-massage.
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