There’s a story behind this, of course… But let’s start with your MHO. How would you feel about your boyfriend wearing nail polish.
Clear polish or not? It makes a pretty big difference. A number of professional urban men (and especially lots of gay men) like to wear clear polish after having a manicure. I would never do it but I don’t judge the polishers negatively other than to think they are a bit overly fussy.
Opaque colored polish means a man is making a statement. How you perceive that statement is dependent on context. Artists and musicians can easily get away with this accountants, doctors, and businessmen not so much.
It would garner a hefty WTF.
If that’s what makes him happy, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. It’s just nail polish.
His attitude about it would be more important. Being a show-off, clearly looking to provoke or make a statement or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, being really self-conscious about it would grate on me more than the nail polish itself.
It wouldn’t much matter to me, to be honest, so long as I knew why he was doing it. Clear polish to maintain a manicure? Black to be all deep? Blue or purple or green to be funky? Glittery pink because he’s going to start taking female hormones soon? Red just to mess with people’s heads?
If he was honest about why he was doing it, I wouldn’t be upset. If he was being overly coy or weird about it, I’d be bothered simply because…well, that kind of behavior bugs me.
I didn’t think much of it when my ex started wearing nail polish, usually black or dark blue. The eyeliner struck me as a bit much, but I just chalked it up to being emo. The eye shadow, however, was the deal-breaker (among other things.)
I wish I was joking.
I am a guy and have been thinking about wearing black on the weekends. I work in an office and thought it may be inappropriate and attract unwanted attention at work so I probably wouldn’t wear it there. So this a timely thread.
I wish you were too. What’s so wrong with him wearing eye shadow? I admit I’m not a huge fan of eye shadow on guys, but I wouldn’t reject a partner for it. (Unless the “among other things” were really bad.)
Go for it, dude. What do you have to lose? It’s easily removed.
Only if it clashed with his eyeliner.
Again, it would depend on why he was doing it. Is it simply a newly adopted logical aspect of his personal style? Or is he showing something of himself you never knew before?
I mean, I just dyed my hair bright crayon red. It was a normal brown before, but I am also tatted and my makeup can get ostentatious, so it was a logical aspect of a previously known personal style. Is it like that?
I would be amused. No problem. But we roll with that sort of crowd.
I have my toes painted, yet I would be slightly oogy with a regular fella wearing fingernail polish. Can’t put my finger on why?
Whats the deal with guys who only paint one finger? It wouldn’t bother me half as much if that one finger wasn’t always the pinky.
Clear → :rolleyes:
Black, blue, dark purple, green or silver → 
Red, pink, rose, etc. → 
If my boyfriend/husband was genderqueer, it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker, but, like **CaerieD **said, I’d want to know about it. And pinks and reds in nail polish on not-costumed days would suggest some unconventional gender issues.
Well, I would think it was quite odd. The Mr. is an electrician in training. That crowd (i.e. construction) doesn’t usually roll that way. I wouldn’t be mad or upset though. I wear it - why shouldn’t he if he likes the way it looks?
I wouldn’t be thrilled about it. I kind of think nail polish is stupid in general, so that’s part of it. He’s a very masculine guy, and I like that in general about him. Wearing nail polish and or makeup would be so against his nature that something would have to be going on. But he wouldn’t be thrilled if I cut my long hair, either, so I guess we’re just old fashioned like that.
I went to high school in a time when black nail polish was worn by some gays…mainly the emo guys. So it wouldn’t be unusual to me, but it’s not the personality that I would look for, so yes I would probably have a problem with it.
Ditto.
Interesting variety of responses…
Anyway, here’s the story behind this. As some of you may know from my other thread, I’m attending a company dinner & dance, and I’m going as Japanese goth, in the Elegant Gothic Aristocrat/Lolita style. Think black lace, ruffles, platform boots.
Anyway, to complete the outfit, I decided to add some metallic blue or black nail polish. SO was okay with it at first, but when we were playing around with the nail polish last night, she got more and more touchy about it, saying that she didn’t like me looking at my nails with my fingers splayed out*.
As the night wore on and I was taking off the nail polish (or rather, she was teaching me how to take off the nail polish properly and without damaging my nails), she asked me in a very concerned tone if it was going to be a frequent thing, or if if was just going to be a d&d thing. Of course, I assured her that it was a d&d thing, but she still looked unhappy. Maybe I looked like I enjoyed playing with the nail polish too much? I dunno.
Now I’m wondering if I should do the rest of the makeup without her around. She knows that I’m doing foundation lipstick and eyeshadow, but maybe I shouldn’t ask her to be a part of it, if that’s what’s disturbing her? She didn’t seem I have a problem with the concept…
*: Thwre was this test about how to tell if you were male or female by asking them to inspect their fingernails. Men would check their nails with their fingers curled toward in the palm, wheras women would check their nails with their fingers splayed, palm facing away from them. I hadn’t noticed it, but I suppose the second way really is better for checking out the colour of your nails?