The price of nice

Over the past few weeks, I have grown ten strange appendages. After biting my nails for my whole life, for some reason I just stopped. And people have always told me to stop, so I figured it might be worth a try.

My hands look, well, nice, but I'm just not sure it's worth it. I am accidentally scratching myself and others. I am accidentally scratching squeaky surfaces, making my blood run cold. I am constantly getting dirt under my fingernails and am obsessed with cleaning them. And now I'm worried about breaking them. If I paint them, I'm going to be afraid of chipping the polish. And typing, something I do for hours a day, feels weird. Why do women do this?

I'm starting to understand that long fingernails are a minor feminist issue. Fingernails are restrictive, much like heels or skirts or makeup. When constrained by these items, women can't be as active as men for fear of hurting themselves or making a mess.

Of course women aren't less feminist if they have long nails (or wear heels or skirts or makeup for that matter - something I did for years in a corporate workplace). But a society that expects women to have long nails is perhaps not completely supportive of the idea that women should have as much freedom as men.

So to all you who told me to grow my fingernails, poo. But I might keep trying it a bit longer anyway.