Nobody can be surprised since Bad Bunny, Harry Styles, Borja Iglesias, Brad Pitt or Al Pacino wear painted nails to go to work. That is to say, that they wear colored nail polish when they go to their concerts, galas, red carpets and soccer games. What is not so common yet is that other men who make a living away from showbiz do it, but that too is beginning to change.
The Minister of Territory of the Generalitat, Juli Fernà ndez, from ERC, paints them because he likes it and because he wants to, but also because he is aware that going to Parliament with black, purple or colored nails sends a powerful message. “I started painting them three years ago. I have a son who is now 13 and he also began to paint them. There I understood that it was important that there were references for men who could break the stereotype. Aesthetically, I feel good and I think it can be useful.”
Fernà ndez, who does his own manicures and also sometimes paints his wife’s nails, says he feels comfortable that way. “I try as hard as I can to break with the things that men are supposed to do and the things that women are supposed to do, those norms that are based on a patriarchal vision of society.”
Most of the comments she receives about her nails are positive, and they come, above all, from women and young people. “And if there are other types of comments, surprise, it gives me the opportunity to explain that this has nothing to do with gender or sexual orientation,” she clarifies.
The image consultant Marta Pontnou, who has worked closely with Fernà ndez – she is a consultant for ERC, Més per Mallorca and some leaders of EH Bildu – takes part of the credit for the aesthetic daring of the Minister of Territori. “It is one of those that lends itself the most. The style before him was more white shirt, jeans and jacket. As we have been working together we have incorporated elements such as vests or colored Doc Martensâ€. And the nails, which Fernà ndez wore purple for 8M, but has also worn black or light colors.
“It is good for a politician to make something like this visible. Until now, he was relegated to more artistic trades, related to art or acting, â€says Pontnou. “I understand that in other areas there are dress protocols but without attacking personal freedom. There is a fine line where freedom ends and protocol begins and to navigate it you have to use common sense, consistency and also freedom â€, she points out.
In fact, when we asked PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the so-called Big Four –according to a periodic report by an independent institute, the templates in these consultancies barely reach 15% women and all register serious pay imbalances of up to 28% in favor of of men– assure that this thing about nails sounds “quite distant†to them. “It must be a more frequent situation in advertising agencies, in the world of entertainment or in technology companies,” ventures a spokesperson for PWC, where you still don’t see many men with painted nails.
Outside of those realms, many men who paint their nails veer between openness and self-censorship. Pau Berbel, who works as a coordinator of social projects in an NGO, began painting his nails during the pandemic “out of boredom and to try things.” If he has meetings with the organization’s governing bodies, he sometimes avoids doing so “out of laziness and not facing questions.” In his spare time he has received more positive than negative comments, although he remembers one occasion, in the sauna of a municipal sports center in which he noticed “uncomfortable looks from two boys.”
Samuel Alonso, who identifies as a non-binary person, is 22 years old and works as a nurse in Oviedo. Alonso also prefers to remove his enamel for work, partly because he is not recommended for use in the toilets for reasons of hygiene and partly to avoid comments. “Many nurses wear their nails painted to work without being hindered, but in my case, it is enough for them to see an entity they perceive as male with their nails painted for them to make that argument against me.”
As in healthcare, in hospitality employees are sometimes advised not to wear permanent or semi-permanent manicures for hygiene reasons, but again, in practice there are differences in how the rules are applied. “When he worked as a waiter and mixologist, when doing the interview he did not wear them painted, but later at work he did. He was a bit cautious the first few days but I think the owners were amused. They thought that this would give the bar a cool touchâ€, comments Alfonso Blanco, a photographer who has had experiences of a very different nature for having his nails painted in his different jobs.
In her current job, doing management and administration tasks at a private university, she prefers not to do it because a colleague advised her to. On one occasion he did lose a job for just that reason, as a free time monitor accompanying adolescent boys and girls to a stay in the United Kingdom. After fulfilling that role for two summers, she went to an appointment with her superior, whom she defines as “a very creative, altruistic and good communicator woman who referred to the term disability as a different capacity”, with her nails painted green. and with a layer of glitter, to match the shirt. The detail coincided, as she explains, with a time of personal discovery in which Blanco was freeing himself “from the farce of heterosexual privilege.” The boss asked her not to show herself with painted nails in front of the students’ families and that she refrain from wearing them like this during the entire trip. When he replied that it was important to him, and that she connected with her message of inclusive and respectful education, “the boss wrote to him via message:” the rules are the rules. I’m not homophobic, I have friends and family like that.” Both he and his brother, who also worked in the organization, preferred to resign from that job. “We were not thinking of going to any job that would discriminate against us because of our appearance or our sexual orientation.â€
Curiously, after that bad experience, he went to an interview to apply for a cooperation scholarship in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and went with painted nails. The interviewer turned out to be a nun who was running the project and that she did not comment on it. She was given the scholarship and she refrained from having her manicure done for the duration of her stay. “Although I was such a strange person there, with my shorts and my general appearance, I think they still wouldn’t have seemed so strange,†she says.
Despite his experience, things could be changing in the educational arena. Just as more and more boys and girls are applying nail art, some teachers are also doing it. ValentÃn Calzado is a primary school teacher in Castilla La Mancha and usually goes to class with flashy manicures, in pinks, blues, greens… He has had no problems with families or with classmates. In fact, her colleagues often ask him about his technique, because his nails are especially well done. And with the students more than once it has helped him to engage in productive conversations.
“Last year I participated in the summer school in my town and one day a boy of about six or seven years old asked me why I painted my nails. I told him that I really liked him, just like Spiderman and soccer. The thing is, he kept associating and then he asked me if I was a sissy, and I told him yes, I’m homosexual. In general, they appreciate diversity, but there is also a student body that has not known other realities, they find it strange and you notice that they do not respect you the same as other teachers who comply with the norm, with the clothing traditionally associated with the genderâ€, says Calzado.
If this teacher’s conversation with his student had taken place in Florida, in the United States, instead of in Castilla-La Mancha, the teacher could lose his job, under the so-called Don’t Say Gay law. ) approved last year by the governor and already a candidate for the Republican presidential primaries Ron de Santis. The regulation prohibits dealing with LGTBQ issues in classrooms and explicitly outlaws messages of the type “you can be whatever you want to be”. That was, in fact, the example that De Santis set when the law went into effect.
The Venezuelan Kevin RodrÃguez (not his real name), preferred not to paint his nails at work when he lived in Miami, although he is not a teacher but a journalist. When he lived there he used only a transparent colored glitter. A few years ago he moved to the capital, Washington, and realized that he was much more generalized there. “It was right when Bad Bunny started wearing them in outrageous colors.” He now does it in his company, despite the fact that his bosses belong to one of the monarchies of the Persian Gulf.
“One day they came by surprise and I was walking around with very painted nails. I had to sit in all the meetings and I was like that. The funniest thing is that they usually avoid eye contact with women and that day they did too. Even with painted nails, they preferred to look at me.” This summer she wants to get a very striking manicure, fluorescent orange or yellow. “Sometimes I dress in a very masculine way but I have my nails painted, and when I go to a more conservative area, in offices, people notice the contrast and it’s like a shock.” But less and less.
