The media is often blamed for setting unrealistic expectations for how women should look. The interesting thing about this trend of manicuring is that it’s largely invisible in the media, because no medium is high enough in resolution to capture such details. And, most men don’t notice this kind of visual details. So this trend is driven by the peer pressures among women alone. My 9-year old daughter loves doing her nails now but eventually it will become a burden because she will be socially expected to do it, like so many other things about their appearances that women have to manage. Fighting the expectations would be equally (if not more) burdensome. It’s the expectation that strips joy out of everything. And, as with this case of manicuring, expectations build unintentionally because we naturally follow the herd just to be safe. Nobody wants to be the lone fighter of social expectations and risk being a butt of the joke.
