Christina Rodulfo

Every time I see this discourse come up, and I've seen it come up on Substack, on TikTok, on Reels, what I've noticed is a glaring lack of intersectionality.

It's harmful to conflate naked nails with better taste or class, which are often just euphemisms for white supremacist beauty standards.

There's nothing inherently wrong with liking nude nails.

I like nude nails.

But what I have a problem with is respectability politics and perpetuating beauty rules that shut down marginalized communities.

We can't talk about nails without talking about how central it is to self-expression in Black and Latino communities and across Asia and Japan and Korea.

In Vietnam, nail art is not just about pretty colors.

It's about how these communities of color show up in a society that constantly devalues them.

Pushing an aesthetic that strips you of expression to be a blank slate of a human being is a dangerous gateway into flattening culture.

But we're the same age, so maybe I'm ending up on the wrong side of that algorithm.

Yeah.

This podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri land.

Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.