CHAINED Nails!!

Hello lovely ladies and lacquered lads!

(I promise... there ARE photos, just below the fold. But first, I'm feeling verbose...)

Again, I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner... the thing is, I was prohibited from wearing nail color at work. If that directive had come from a corporate employer, I would have filed a formal complaint for discrimination, basically demanding equal treatment - either they accept my nail color, or prohibit ALL employees from wearing it. But, I don't have a corporate employer, I work for my parents in a small family business that I expect to take over in 4 years. So, if I complain, I ultimately hurt my own future.

Anyway, that's relevant here, because I now paint my nails on Fridays after work, and remove it Sunday nights - and the short time to apply, plus the short time to wear, doesn't permit or justify a lot of effort to make "blogworthy" manis. I'm not really a "polish reviewer" - I don't feel I've been doing this long enough to speak intelligently about formulas, application etc.. - so my focus is more of "check out this cool effect / technique / look". But, with the work rule in place, I find myself slapping on two coats of something you've already seen, and there just isn't much to say here.

Also, a consequence of the work rule is that my thoughts have bent toward political activism. Specifically, I've been looking at the "Employment Non-Discrimination Act" (which has passed the U.S. Senate, and is pending in the House). Of course, I found a few flaws in ENDA. Basically, the bill prohibits discrimination based on declared or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. By far, the biggest flaw, is that unless someone can prove their employer acted upon "perceived" SO/GI, it provides protections ONLY for those who declare a protected status AND can prove that their employer discriminated FOR that status. But, a lot of people don't necessarily want to declare a protected status - "out" themselves - and others (like me) can not do so honestly.

In my situation (which is trivial, but it's the one I know..) as a male (I have a penis), ENDA would protect me from being fired for wearing nail color at work (for a company with 15+ employees which allows women to wear nail color), IF I was wearing it as part of "identifying as a transgender female". But I'm NOT a TG female, I'm not "a woman in a male body"... I identify as a man - male sex, masculine gender - and my nail color is a celebration of individual style freedom, and a demonstration of opposition and defiance of the sexism upon which "gender" is constructed. So, ENDA provides no protection for me - even though I engage in the same conduct that is protected for some, I do not qualify for its protections because I am not a member of a protected class.

So - instead of writing here, I have been writing to legislators, proposing House amendments to ENDA that would remove its de-facto requirement that people "out" themselves to qualify for protections, and generally shift the focus of the bill away from "victim qualification", toward "prohibiting discrimination on the basis of conduct" and "prohibiting the enforcement of sex-segregated workplace rules".

But - that's enough soapbox. Today, I have something to share with you!

First, for shits & giggles, I gave myself acrylic extensions, for a consistent 1/4" (6mm) of free edge on the 4 fingers of my left hand. Then, I painted them firetruck red - OPI "Color So Hot It Berns". Finally, I took a short length of silver-plated chain, and 4 small (6mm) split rings, and (after using my Dremel to drill 4 holes at 2mm thru each nail tip) I gave myself chained nails!

I saw this look online once, and it was very intriguing - so I decided I had to try it. Today is Tuesday, and we're having our first major snowstorm of the season, so everybody's home, there's really no place I can go to show this off or gauge reactions. I ventured out for some fast-food, to a store I don't regularly visit, and the one person who saw this was very enthusiastic! She said "I love it" at least three times, "So cool" a couple times.. she wanted to know how I did it, and how I wear it all day - she seemed really fascinated! So, I'm calling it a win!

As you can see, the holes are really close to the edge - there's barely 1mm of nail between the hole and the edge - but as I type this, it's been 4 hours and none have broken out.

It's an interesting experience to have chained nails. I'm finding that I have to be a little bit careful - the chains wrap around keys, they catch car door handles, and they sometimes change how I can hold things... but the jiggly, dangly feeling on my fingertips is actually a lot of fun. I've caught myself several times, just absent-mindedly wiggling my fingers to feel the chains move.

I was planning to take this right off tonight - but with this storm, I doubt that I'll be working tomorrow.. so I'm going to sleep with it on, and see if I can wear it all day tomorrow. Tomorrow night is supposed to be a big night for bars - if this survives, I'll take it out and see if it inspires any comments...

This is fun! I got the supplies (chain and rings) from the "Jewelry Making" section of a local craft store (shoutout to Pat Catan's here..) I've had the chain for a while, I forget its price but it wasn't much, and the rings were $0.89 for a pack of 50. If you want to try this, I have materials left to make a few. I'll make you one (while supplies last..), just let me know the distance along the chain that you'd want each finger (I went with 1.75-1.5-1.75) and PM me a mailing address.