What is the deal with long nails

[Terxpahseyton]

Why do women have long nails.
Tastes about women can differ of course, but of everything I can at least see the basic appeal. Heeled shoes get the butt higher into the air, long hair is nice to run your fingers through, make-up can make a face look prettier, I think the main deal with skirts is that they are like an extension of the pelvis making it seem wider, which means fertility. And then it is more easy to get a skirt up than pants down. Polished nails can make the person seem more healthy are just be a signal of this person taking care of her or his body.

But long nails? What is the appeal of long nails? Is that actually something arousing guys? What is the deal with long nails? I suppose they help for the purpose of scratching. But as soon as it gets more intimate, they are god-awful from a practical stand-point in anything but scratching or in general hurting you if you are into that.

Here is what I think: long nails suck

 

[Borachio]

Lesbians do not have long nails.

But I think its origins lie in a class and status thing maybe. If you were a wealthy woman you could signal the fact that you didn't indulge in manual labour by having long nails.

I don't know though. I don't know when this became a fashion thing.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I used to have long nails. Not really long ones, just long enough to bother with nail polish (I was a teenager then and this was my one concession to "teen girl stuff."

But as I mentioned in the other thread, long nails are inconvenient and get in the way of anything you do on a keyboard. Back in the days of manual and electric typewriters, I'd sometimes get my fingers in the way if I had to unstick a key or accidentally get a finger caught between the keys (obviously I'm talking about the older kind of manuals). Since that's painful, I decided to cut them short. To this day I keep them short. Sometimes guys have commented on that, wondering why I don't grow them long and put on polish. They don't get how annoying the whole process is.

About the only time I regret my short nails is when I have to peel some sticky paper thing off of something, like a price tag, or find the useful end of a roll of tape. There are ways to get around that, though.

 

[warpus]

How long is "long" ?

Most women I see have longer nails than mine - but they aren't obscenely long - just slightly longer than mine.

I've seen only a couple women ever with crazy long nails - weird plastic attachments to their fingers.. I think? That part I don't get - but I mean I also don't get high heels and many other female beautification strategies. It's an alien world to me, so I stay out of it.

 

[Borachio]

Go for it, Mr Soup. Go for the whole transvestite thing!

Start small. Just try mincing in and out of a room now and again.

 

[dusters]

It really could be related to status and labour, although nowadays there are new kinds of nail polishes which don't fall off even when one does the dishes often.

I like to have my nails painted - it is a cheap way to get matching colours (like nails and hoodie) for a day and feel prettier.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

How long is "long" ?

This will make me look rude - but in all honesty, what I was thinking of when picturing "too long" were nails that are, due to their longness, uncomfortable when the respective hand bearing the nails touches your dick. So that is my measure of long nails.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Long nails are the deeply rooted societal signal for "I do not have to work with my hands"...identifying the person with long nails as a higher caste. Like the appendix, this is no longer genuinely necessary, or even accurate, but it lingers.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

They're good for gouging out eyes.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

They're good for gouging out eyes.

Gouging out eyes is more a function of impact than object. Any fingertip will do. Long nails don't really add anything in a fight but superficial scratches.

 

[JollyRoger]

long nails suck

No, women with long nails . . .

 

[onejayhawk]

Lesbians do not have long nails.

But I think its origins lie in a class and status thing maybe. If you were a wealthy woman you could signal the fact that you didn't indulge in manual labour by having long nails.

I don't know though. I don't know when this became a fashion thing.

Very much a class and status thing. Working women could not maintain long nails. Also, they give a secondary color point for make up, typically chosen to match the lip color.

J

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Gouging out eyes is more a function of impact than object. Any fingertip will do. Long nails don't really add anything in a fight but superficial scratches.

It makes it easier though. The human eyeball is surprisingly resilient, and a nail would be easier to insert.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I don't always harm someones eyeballs, but when I do, I prefer to push rather than pull.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

It makes it easier though. The human eyeball is surprisingly resilient, and a nail would be easier to insert.

Reasonable. I think that only really applies if you are going with some sort of moving target poke. General purpose eye gouging I think works best with the thumb, because you can get a grip.

Plus thumbs are more durable. I accidentally poked a guy in the eye in a soccer game once, and his eye recovered much faster than my broken finger did.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Well surely that must have been his eye socket doing the damage, rather than the eye itself. Bad aiming!

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Well surely that must have been his eye socket doing the damage, rather than the eye itself. Bad aiming!

Even my short clipped nail left a bleeding cut across most of his eyelid. Had he not shut his eye fast enough it undoubtedly would have been a mess. The outer corner of his eye apparently caught my fingertip and left my little finger mounted sort of like a second thumb, which was a mess.

 

[Farm Boy]

Long nails seem infrequent enough these days that having them usually means the individual is more inclined to do something neat with the styling of them. Given that I'm far more likely to enjoy a really awesome polish job on a cashier somewhere than I am to regret those nails as she polishes my knob, I'm going to go with "long nails are cool."

 

[Borachio]

I am to regret those nails as she polishes my knob

!!!!

This place is PG13, Mr Boy! Enough of this filth!

Anyway, I'm off to my local nail bar right this minute.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

That reminds me of a scene from an American morning show where the moderators acted all shocked because in France 50 shades of gray is all-open for 12-year-olds. That was so cute

Also, @Farm Boy, fabulously put. Gori was right - you are a poet!