Thursday, February 28, 2008

Sparkly toenails

I know Im supposed to be horrified that 9-year-olds are getting pedicures, but what can I say? I've had a whopping total of one pedicures, and I was eleven at the time. A friend's grandmother gave her a gift certificate to bring a friend for this procedure, and I can't say I was hooked. No one is touching my feet! But as for the anti-capitalist, innocent-childhood-saving backlash against the Toenail Polish Industry, I'm not having that, either. The NYT Styles piece concludes,

But cosmetics for girls at any age worries Lucy Corrigan, a mother of two daughters, 8 and 11, in Hastings-on-the-Hudson, N.Y. Still, last year she allowed her younger daughter to go to two salon birthday parties for 7-year-olds. “Of course, it was alarming,” she said. “But I’d rather my girls try it and decide they don’t need all these products to be beautiful, and then do something more vital with their time and money and efforts, like write a poem or take a walk or save the world.”

Because once toenail polish is applied, it is impossible to write verse, emulate Al Gore, and, of course, walk. The problem here is a whole lot like Heather MacDonald's conviction that a college cannot simultaneously host sex workshops and Plato symposia.

1 comment:

Steve Muhlberger said...

Didn't the original Greek symposia involve with the flute girls?