\n
Manicures have been whispering messages about the wearer’s position in society for as long as they have existed, according to fashion journalist Suzanne E. Shapiro.<\/p>\n
“Women’s bodies – and sense of self-presentation – have always held huge political and cultural significance,” Shapiro, who wrote Nails: The Story of The Modern Manicure, tells the BBC.<\/p>\n
Even back in 13th century Imperial China, the lengthy talons grown by nobility and the delicately carved brass nail shields which usually guarded them were a symbol of a life unmarred by manual labour.<\/p>\n
A single layer of the rose-tinted waxy salves which were popular in the 1800s was a sign of vigour and health, but two layers – in an era when cosmetics and artificial beauty were tied to virtue – was the mark of a vain or “loose” woman.<\/p>\n
And the red at-home nail lacquer, released by Revlon in the early 1930s, was a badge of honour for modern women rebelling against that kind of oppressive judgement.<\/p>\n
But it was women of colour who really made manicures an accessible and fashionable form of self-expression, historians say.<\/p>\n
Entertainer Josephine Baker, disco icons Dianna Ross and Donna Summer, and Olympic gold-medal-winning sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner – whose dramatic acrylic sets often distracted headline writers from her record-setting performances – have all pioneered nail art.<\/p>\n
“These were times that it was hard for black women to be able to express themselves,” says celebrity nail artist Celeste Hampton.<\/p>\n
“[Nail art] allowed black women to express our form of softness, our form of femininity, our form of beauty.”<\/p>\n
And when waves of Vietnamese refugees gave rise to the nail bar in the 1970s, professional manicures were no longer the preserve of the rich.<\/p>\n
But, like many luxuries, as they became more popular and more accessible to the masses, the wealthy began pivoting \u2013 a textbook example of behaviour known as “counter signalling”, Rudolfo says.<\/p>\n
“The same way that logo bags are considered gauche or quiet luxury is more aspirational, bare nails are considered the trend now.<\/p>\n
“The examples are almost always white women or celebrities… [and] they’ll often conflate class and taste with that bareness.”<\/p>\n
Others point out bare nails often demand their own time-consuming and costly routine.<\/p>\n
“The irony in all this is these natural nails are not natural either,” Shapiro says. “They also require a lot of grooming and sometimes pretty premiere services.”<\/p>\n
Few would argue there aren’t valid feminist questions for the beauty industry to answer, around unrealistic standards for example, but the largely female-run nail sector also feels empowering for many women.<\/p>\n
“I feel like nail care has very much had a ‘for women, by women’ sort of ethos around it,” Shapiro says. “The first salon opened in New York City was owned by a woman, and she was a remarkably independent one… a lot of the first entrepreneurs offering product lines, opening salons were women.”<\/p>\n
Hampton admits she’s saddened by the way trends have been \u2013 and continue to be – weaponised.<\/p>\n
“We’re taking the fun out of nails… Anyone should be able to wear what they like – nail polish or bare nails,” she says.<\/p>\n
“Why is there an argument? Why is there beef?”<\/p>\n
Scanlon too is a little baffled.<\/p>\n
“For me, it’s like just stop judging ourselves and everybody else… Some people like to have the nails done, some people don’t,” she says.<\/p>\n
“I suppose the question that I was posing was, is it doing anything for you?<\/p>\n
“The truth of it is: it’s not that deep.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manicures have been whispering messages about the wearer’s position in society for as long as they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3189,11791,11790,2174,839,11792],"class_list":["post-99923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-bare","tag-classist","tag-classy","tag-hot","tag-issue","tag-nails"],"yoast_head":"\n
Classy or classist? How bare nails became a hot issue - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Classy or classist? How bare nails became a hot issue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-25T23:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/73fb0ed0-8cd2-11f1-a7ab-8b30adf0800a.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Classy or classist? How bare nails became a hot issue - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Classy or classist? How bare nails became a hot issue","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2026-09-25T23:31:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/73fb0ed0-8cd2-11f1-a7ab-8b30adf0800a.avif","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=99923"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Classy or classist? How bare nails became a hot issue","datePublished":"2026-09-25T23:31:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=99923"},"wordCount":596,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/73fb0ed0-8cd2-11f1-a7ab-8b30adf0800a.avif","keywords":["bare","classist","Classy","hot","issue","nails"],"articleSection":["Health"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=99923","url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","name":"Classy or classist? How bare nails became a hot issue - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/73fb0ed0-8cd2-11f1-a7ab-8b30adf0800a.avif","datePublished":"2026-09-25T23:31:00+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/73fb0ed0-8cd2-11f1-a7ab-8b30adf0800a.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/73fb0ed0-8cd2-11f1-a7ab-8b30adf0800a.avif","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cpd7zw43wexo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Classy or classist? How bare nails became a hot issue"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/99924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}