How do you look at your nails?

[inquisitiv]

Gals, take a look at your nails. When I was a pre-teen, I had a day at the beach with a teenage female relative. She was reading a teen mag with one of those surveys. She asked me to look at my nails. I did. She said I responded like a girl, looking at my hand outstretched, while guys usually look at their fingernails with their fingers curled toward the palm. This made me very self-conscious, and to this day while in male mode, which is basically all the time, I find myself quickly adopting the finger curl. Maybe she sensed something about me that I didn't even recognize. Just before posting, I found a web reference that seems to verify the survey question at http://www.legalmomentum.org/our-work/sfr/quotes-from-abstinence-only.html How did you fare?

[Shikyo]

Always with straight fingers, otherwise it was hard to tell if the nails were even, how long they were etc. Only for cleaning under the nails, the other way around is more practical.

[kristinacd55]

I do it the girl way spreading out my fingers :)

[Karren H]

I'm ambidextrous........ I swing both ways...... :D. Just depends.. Lol

[Patricia1]

I'm even-handed about it myself. When my nails are polished, it's all hands on deck, that is, stretched out. Otherwise, I tend to look at my nails with my hands scrunched up, to get a better view of individual nails. My SO does the same thing & she oughta know.

[Karen564]

For starters, I use my eyes...:battingeyelashes:


Oh, you mean the other thing..

I look at them stretched out, aways did for some reason, although I was corrected as a kid that I shouldn't because only girls do it that way... Oh really..who would of guessed..:heehee:

[Lorileah]

OY! I look at my nails in the most convenient way at the time. I love these "tells" that get published. I think more GG's get outed as CD's when people use these tells in public. It is so "tweener" for all these rules. How do you cross your legs? Do you have an "adam's apple", can you twist your ankles around. reach your fingers behind your back when one hand is over the shoulder, do you walk like a duck or one foot in front of the other? I think most times teen aged boys do this to make fun of their friends when they react "like a girl" does. No wonder we are neurotic.

Oh damn I broke a nail

[Highland Anne]

I have long fingers so I look at them stretched out.

[Kate Simmons]

The way I look at my nails doesn't pay my salary, so who cares?:battingeyelashes::)

[girl@heart]

i never really thought about that...i guess i check them both ways :)

[Patricia1]

Oh damn I broke a nail

Lori - Lol. Funny girl; I popped a stay, I laughed so hard. I won't "tell" if you don't.

[Kokoro]

I remember this doing the rounds at school. It was tied in with a couple of others.

The 1st was the fingernails.

The second test was to look at the sole of your shoe (as if checking for mud or... stuff). If you moved your foot behind while bending your knee and looked over your shoulder it was considered girly, while the male way was considered to move your foot infront of you while bending the kneel and twisting your hip (and usually end up having to use your hand to twist your foot the rest of the way) so you are looking down at it.

Can't remember what the 3rd one was.

[Sammy777]

Both ways, it depends what I am looking at them for.

[Trish]

As I read the title, I looked at my nails, and my hand was outstretched.

[fay]

Stretched, dammit if you've got it flaunt it:heehee:

[CD Susan]

Stretched out. I know this for a fact because I look at my nails a lot. I keep them long and polished all the time.

[Jenniferpl]

I swing both ways.

[linnea]

I had a similar thing happen: the sister of a girl I was dating while we were in high school asked me the same question (from some kind of magazine survey). I looked at my nails as the survey said women do and my girl friend's sister laughed and said that I did it like a girl. I was secretly pleased but I remembered that.

[Ballerina]

Lol. I remember my history teacher doing that to us. I ended up going both ways- stretched out, then curled in. It made me scratch my head after he told us, lol.

He said that women stretch their fingers out to look at their nail in relative to their hand (looking for beauty), and men curl their fingers to look more at their palm (strength).

[KimberlyJo]

the nail thing, most of the time I curl them inward like a guy would, but I've spent most of my life conditioning myself to act more manly because I've always been a bit on the femme side.

The foot thing that Kokoro mentioned, I would definitely pick my foot up and look back over my shoulder. I think that has more to do with my flexibility and balance than anything else though. It would hurt my hips to try to look at the bottom of my foot in front of my body.

Same reason I sit cross legged "like a girl", it's comfortable and doing it "like a guy" isn't.

[sometimes_miss]

Urban myth. I read this one about ten years ago. Too many guys hold their fingers straight out for this one to be true. It also may depend on what they were doing with their hands right before you ask them. Also, you will find some women look at them with fingers curled as well. It's just one more silly thing a gender bender thought up, trying to figure out ways to separate people into categories.

[mariellacd]

.. but i outstretch :)

[Serena]

I definitely look at them outstretched and proud of it.

[Ralph]

He said that women stretch their fingers out to look at their nail in relative to their hand (looking for beauty), and men curl their fingers to look more at their palm (strength).

Well, that's just stupid. I curl my fingers toward me because I can get them closer to my face for a more detailed inspection than I can with my hand stretched out. In addition, with my hands stretched out, palms outward I can't see the outer two fingernails (little finger and ring finger) unless I twist my wrist awkwardly inward, and that position hurts to hold for more than a few seconds.

Of course, I also use a sheet of sandpaper instead of an emery board to file off rough edges, so I'm probably not the most typical sample set for this survey.

Pop psychology is about as meaningful as a fortune cookie ("If you curl your fingers towards you, you're looking at your palm for strength... in bed!")

ralph-san

[NicoleScott]

I have heard of this before (how men and women look at their nails). Another one is the different ways men and women strike a match (from a matchbook) to light a cigarette. Men strike the match towards them, women, away. In general, of course.

[Hope]

When I was dating my wife, her and her gay roommate "quizzed me" on this sort of thing. The fingernails, the rinsing shampoo out of your hair (apparently men face the shower head, women face away) and a third "test" I don't recall at the moment... needless to say (to their amusement) I "failed" miserably... not performing a single action in the masculine way. I was secretly delighted.

Then of course there is the old chestnut from Huckleberry Fin - the way poor Huck was outed - by pushing the thread through the needle instead of passing the eye of the needle over the thread. Always seemed to be rather oddly erotic to me.

[Ralph]

That's just weird. Both the matchhead thing and the shower thing are impractical the "masculine" way. Pulling the match towards you means the flame will be under your hand/wrist when the match completes its arc; rinsing your hair as you face the nozzle makes it more likely to get suds in your eyes, and next to impossible to rinse the hair on the back of your head.

Have any of you ever watched non-TG men do either of those actions and paid attention to which direction the actions are performed? I find it difficult to believe anyone would pull a match towards themselves.

ralph

[Shikyo]

Have any of you ever watched non-TG men do either of those actions and paid attention to which direction the actions are performed? I find it difficult to believe anyone would pull a match towards themselves.

ralph

I've seen guys doing the thing with the match. They light it towards themselves and not away from them.

[allisonrn06]

I think I do both, but probably more with my fingers extended. Still, I think I see a lot of GG's do this with their fingers curled ,too. I think that a lot of these analyses of mannerisms, facial expressions, body language and such are too much a matter of interpretation - there probably are some that are universal, but others that are not...

[Stormgirl]

I've always looked at my nails with an outstretched hand for the lost time.