Why do women paint their real nails to look like real nails? A “French” manicure replicates the look of real nails, but they aren’t real. The colors are the same as unpolished nails, but enhanced. Most women who have this nail style pay a lot of money to get this done. None of this makes any sense. If you are going to go to the trouble of having fake nails, why make them look like real nails? Why not have real nails?

Why is fake better than real?

I knew a lady who didn’t even have her own nails painted to look like a French manicure. She used fake nails. Every week she would take off the fake nails and put on new fake nails. She felt she had to do this to look professional for her job. The chemicals she used for this were damaging her own real nails. Every week her own natural nails looked worse and worse because of the fake nails she was putting on.

What a waste of money and time. This is madness.

It reminds me of the makeup that is sold as “the natural look”. If you have to pay money to get the natural look, it isn’t natural. If it comes in a bottle, it isn’t real.

Imagine how many industries would go out of business if women loved how they look. We are taught that we aren’t beautiful with every advertisement. We are taught that we aren’t good enough, no matter what we look like. It is a game we can never win.

Our skin is blotchy or too light or too dark. There are concealers, creams, and foundations that even out skin tones and make them any color you’d like. There are bleaches that will lighten your skin if you are too dark.

Our butts are too big or not big enough. There are elastic bands that squeeze fat into submission. There are padded prosthetics that give you a rounded shape.

Our hair is the wrong color or it is going grey. If your hair is too dark, make it blonde. If it is blonde, then make it brunette. If it is going grey, cover it up. Once you start on that path you’ll forever have to get your hair done to keep up.

Our hair is too straight, too curly, to kinky, too flat, too textured, too much.

We have hair in places we are told we shouldn’t have hair. We tweeze, pluck, shave, and wax it away. Hairs on arms and faces are discretely taken care of. Hair almost everywhere else is removed or trimmed into submission.

Why do women shave? We are expected to shave off all (or most of) the body hair we gained when we hit puberty. To remove this is to reduce our appearance to that of a prepubescent girl. Something is distinctly creepy about this.

Why do we have to feel ashamed about something natural? Why are we taught that we aren’t good enough? Why are we taught that our natural beauty isn’t beautiful?

And more importantly, why do we believe these lies?