# Look at the bottom of your shoe. Look at your nails. Look up at the sky. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 17, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989 "2007-08-17T20:20:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/41 "2007-08-20T18:51:41Z")
Real Men rip their shirts off. Sincerely, James T. Kirk ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/42 "2007-08-20T19:52:54Z")
Does the ‘girly’ method have anything to do with avoiding getting make up on the shirt? ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/43 "2007-08-20T20:09:05Z")
Right hand grabs left shirt sleeve and pulls down hard so that left shoulder and arm come out through neckhole. Left hand does the same, grabbing right bottom of shirt sleeve. Both hands pull shirt down over hips and legs. Gets easier as neckhole becomes outrageously stretched. Remember those really wide collar sweaters from the eighties? I invented those. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/44 "2007-08-20T23:16:01Z")
[QUOTE=furryman] Real Men rip their shirts off. [/QUOTE] …using only the flexing power of their pectoral muscles. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/45 "2007-08-20T23:37:28Z")
Oops. Khan Noonien Singh is signed on to **JSexton** ’s account again! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/46 "2007-08-21T00:56:50Z")
The bottom of your shoes? Your fingernails? The sky? The next time you’re trying to figure out if you’re a boy or a girl, just take the easy route and look in your underwear. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/47 "2007-08-21T01:27:57Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] The bottom of your shoes? Your fingernails? The sky? The next time you’re trying to figure out if you’re a boy or a girl, just take the easy route and look in your underwear. [/QUOTE] The more one puts into life, the more one gets out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Wonderwall6129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Wonderwall6129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonderwall6129)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/48 "2007-08-21T17:31:46Z")
I take off my shirt 2 ways: 1.) cross arms at bottom, peel up. (The “sexy” way, as I guess we’re calling it now.) 2.) Pull arms inside sleeves, raise arms. (I do it with a shirt I only wore for a short time, because it’s not dirty, therefore I can put it away again, and doing it that way makes it so that it’s not inside-out.) I do the first one about 85% of the time though. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/49 "2007-08-21T19:51:30Z")
Does the test say anything about people who, when they look at the sky, reflexively throw up their arms to encircle the front of their heads at eye level? I do that, because I’m an amateur astronomer, and I can block out most of the light pollution on the horizon that way. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/50 "2007-08-21T20:14:59Z")
I would never have done _any_ of these things, as I grew up the youngest of five boys (and no girls). “Look at the bottom of your shoe.” ::pushes me over:: “Look at your nails.” :pushes fist into my nose:: “Look at the sky” ::snowball in the newly-exposed throat region:: The likelihood of me responding would have been about as high as “you spilled something on your shirt” - which is to say, zero. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/51 "2007-08-21T21:10:29Z")
[QUOTE=Autolycus] The more one puts into life, the more one gets out of it. [/QUOTE] The same could be said for underpants. 😃 Well. I do _both_ kinds of nail check. I tend to flip fingers flat for a second, then roll wrist and examine nails, then sometimes flip back so palm is facing ground and fingers are straight. :dubious: What does this mean? I look at the sky a lot. In fact, if I see something really neat in the sky, I pull over when on the road. Since I’m much more worried about missing something than I am in being suckerpunched in the balls, this works for me. I check my shoes the boy way. I’m a boy. They used to call me a Metrosexual but now they don’t have a word for what I am. 🙂 Cartoonivese ---
**Author:** ![rocksolid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@rocksolid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocksolid)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/52 "2007-08-21T21:37:41Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] I think the “crossed arms” variant is overwhelmingly female. I’ve never seen a guy do it. [/QUOTE] Really? Well, colour me pink, clearly i’m a girl! I just tried the non-crossed method yabob describes and i’m damned if i get it. I can’t pull from the bottom without crossing my arms, please print me some diagrams before my gender is questioned next time i’m in the gym changing room (no hurry lol). Never heard the sky thing before, but if someone said that in school i’d probably make a really quick glance for the sucker punch reasons described. The other two depend entirely on what position i’m in at the time. Hands on keyboard - inspect nails girly way, afterall they are practically in that position anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tool_of_the_Conspiracy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/53 "2007-08-21T22:03:55Z")
[QUOTE=Autolycus] I know I’ve led a sheltered life, but I must say I never knew how many different ways there were to take off a T-shirt. So far we have: 1)Both arms inside, pull off from top front. (the way I do it). 2)One arm inside, pull off from top front. 3)No arms inside, one-handed pull off from back of neck and work the way up and over. 4)No arms inside, two-handed pull off from back of neck 5)No arms inside, pull from bottom of t-shirt up and over. AKA “the sexy way.” Are there any more? [/QUOTE] Here’s mine:[ol] [li]Grasp left cuff in right hand[/li][li]Pull left arm into shirt[/li][li]Tilt head to right[/li][li]Sweep right hand (and left cuff) in a rainbow shape over head, leaving shirt dangling from right arm, which can drop it into laundry basket[/li][/ol] FLOOR! I meant “drop it on the floor, for my wife to pick it up and wash it”! Us manly men don’t use laundry baskets, and certainly wouldn’t do laundry ourselves, right? Crap, I mentioned a rainbow, too… ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/54 "2007-08-22T01:26:40Z")
Letsee… “look at the bottom of your shoe” - over the shoulder backwards “look at your nails” - rolls wrist over, makes a half-fist “look at the sky” - up and to the right …well, I always did suspect that I was an uncute tomboy. ---
**Author:** ![ARKs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@ARKs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ARKs)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2014, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/55 "2014-12-30T08:18:18Z")
> **[Gigli (2003) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299930/)** > > Gigli: Directed by Martin Brest. With Ben Affleck, Terry Camilleri, David Backus, Lenny Venito. Larry Gigli is assigned by a crime boss to kidnap the brother of a prominent district attorney. A beautiful woman known only as Ricki is sent to stay with... I saw the nails inference first in the movie “Gigli” 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2014, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/56 "2014-12-30T10:19:07Z")
What if you look at your nails both ways, but only on Saturdays just as the Sun goes down? What do you call those people? Answer: Jews ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2014, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/57 "2014-12-30T10:39:38Z")
> [@ARKs](#): > > [Gigli (2003) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299930/) > > I saw the nails inference first in the movie “Gigli” 🆒 Wait a second! Somebody claims to have watched Gigli? ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/58 "2015-01-01T01:00:12Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > I’ve actually noticed there are about 3 ways to take off a t-shirt. > > Grab at the bottom and pull up in one smooth motion, which turns it inside out. This is, if I may stereotype, the way women use most of the time. > > Grab the back of the collar and pull off in one smooth motion. I associate this with gay men, or men trying to be smooth and sexy. > > Pull your arms through the sleeves one at a time so that they’re both completely inside the shirt. Wiggle your way out ungracefully. This is definitely a much more “guy” method than the other two. > > Of course, these are just generalizations. Women have more options. How I do it. a. It’s the end of the day and I don’t have to worry about my hair any more…grab at the bottom and pull up. b. If I’m sweaty, pull from the back of the collar so I don’t have to have a wet shirt rub across my face. c. If I’m in a long sleeve t-shirt I do the pull the arms in first thing and wiggle out of it. It’s a hassle to turn a long sleeved shirt right way out… ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/59 "2015-01-01T03:15:12Z")
OK, how about socks? How do you put them on? I have always just slid them over my feet and up my calves, but my woman insists that they should be rolled down first, the toe slipped in, and the sock unrolled up the leg. I think it is a stockings thing. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989/60 "2015-01-01T04:29:08Z")
files too. do you hold them up against your chest or down by your side? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/look-at-the-bottom-of-your-shoe-look-at-your-nails-look-up-at-the-sky/415989.md?page=4)