Not so loud and clear

Recently, nail artist Asa Bree graced the Internet with a gift. With realistic depiction of the vagina as nail art, she aims at promoting art and self-acceptance. According to her, this not only promotes nail designing as a kind of art but also such an artistic depiction of the female vagina allows women to accept their body as their own, promotes self-love and teaches oneself to love and accept another person for who they really are.

This isn’t the first trend to have taken the Internet by story. Previously, social media was inundated by videos of the Ice Bucket Challenge too. But what’s worth wondering is do these awareness trends really spread the awareness they are intended to.

Life coach Khyati Birla doesn’t entirely believe so. According to her, creating awareness around such issues is generally a structured methodology. “I don’t see how this trend can spread the serious awareness that these issues deserve,” she says, adding that trends like these are often frivolous and irresponsible. “Imagine a relative flaunting such nails in your home with your kids around. Some trends are just not right for a mixed crowd. I personally believe we can teach our children far better than this. And even try to create far more awareness in an audience about sexual issues than without such detailed graphics.”

(Photo: Topknotnails/instagram)

Kinjal Pandya, consulting psychologist, thinks that the nail art trend is extremely loud and, for her, best avoided. “It is all right to want to talk about vaginas and female body parts as a part of creating awareness, but I have my doubts about since loud trends like these rarely ever attain what they aspire to attain,” she says.

Kinjal also adds that creating awareness aside, these are also personal ideologies that needn’t be paraded around in such an open manner. “To accept one’s body for what it is, one doesn’t need to have vaginas on their nails. They can be proud of themselves just strongly believing in their idea,” she points out.

Khyati agrees with Kinjal that this is a loud trend, and thinks that being subtle is more advantageous than in-your-face loud. “A metaphor works far more strongly, especially for issues concerning private body parts, than an accurate graphical representation to convey the point,” she says. “Look at sanitary napkin advertisements. Would you actually want to see a bloody sanitary napkin?” she questions as a matter of fact.

Concluding, Kinjal adds that feminism and body acceptance are important issues faced by women in today’s age, considering how there are trolls present in both real and the virtual world. But trends along these lines do more damage than imagined. “Accepting oneself for who you really are is all in the mind — you needn’t wear fancy nails to prove it to someone else  that you love your body.”