I'm with you on the music. As for nail polish, my mother never used anything other a clear lacquer.
Well, your mother is in a different generation obviously, influenced by different fashion trends. My mom never used colored polish either but a lot of her cohort did. Back then, long pointy nails, with or without polish, were popular for women her age. Now they're back again. But around the era of the Madonna picture they were out, and even supermodels had short, unpolished nails.
I've noticed that two of my neighbors -- one 75 and one 79 -- wear their fingernails long and filed to points. Clear or no polish. Not, I assume, because that look is now trendy among 20-something but because they've always thought that was proper and maintained the habit even during Madonna's peak years.
As for toenail polish--I guess I'll get slapped for this--I've always felt it looked a little, well, slutty not in good taste.[/font][/size]
Well [*shrugs*], I'm a slut.
(That's a Jennifer Aniston line from a
Friends episode years on years ago that I found funny and have always remembered. Her sister asks why she owns a slutty looking dress and that's her reply. There was more to the situation but I can't remember it.)
Just as fingernail polish went out of style, toenail polish became
de rigueur. Or as the essayist Meghan Daum once put it, "Around 1990, it became illegal for women to leave the house without toenail polish." (Another funny line I remember from years ago.) I would say many more women, of all generations, wear it than don't. You've probably been surrounded by sluts all this time and didn't notice.
I see guys using it now.....I don't like it.
I'm on the fence about that. It wouldn't make a guy especially attractive to me -- more likely the opposite. But I do like that guys are feeling freer to wear "feminine" things because it's always been so taboo for men to do anything resembling women, which I believe is rooted in misogyny. I remember when even long hair or earrings on men drew disapproval.
Did you happen to see recent red-carpet photos of Brad Pitt wearing a skirt? I feel sort of the same way about men in skirts. Brad's ensemble was not particularly attractive -- it looked sloppy, with a crooked hem and baggy untucked shirt; you wouldn't see a woman celeb dressed that way except maybe Billie Eilish. But I liked that he was doing it.
My son has grown his hair to about bicep length. He usually wears it in a bun for work but sometimes just down his back when not working. Last fall he had shoulder surgery and needed to keep his hair up but couldn't raise his arm. So his girlfriend gave him two French braids, pigtail style. I'd never seen that style on a guy before. I can't say it was especially attractive but again, I liked that he was doing it. He's also fairly good looking and wears a beard, so those things helped.
Side note: I recently read an essay online by a waitress who said whenever she wears her hair in pigtails she gets more tips. Other waitresses chimed in to say they'd had the same experience. It was creepy, they said, because the implication is that the style made them look like little girls, appealing to men's latent pedophilia. My son is a waiter but I'm not sure the style was lucrative for him.
What really creeps me out is black nail polish whoever is wearing it.
It's not my favorite look but I don't really mind it. Until about 15-20 years ago, throughout history, nail polish always had to be some shade of red or pink. Now it's every imaginable color. I like that much better.
I'm less fond of intricate designs -- little patterns or pictures, tips different color than the rest of the nail, etc. Lately I've seen women wearing random mixtures of colors on different fingers. I don't have any great objection to these but they seem way more trouble than they're worth.
