On Manicures...

Three blocks from the building where I currently live, there is a salon.

I’ve never been there myself, but I’ve seen the sign out front as I’ve walked past the place on my way home from work, night after night.

“MAN-icures” the sign reads, and it’s surrounded by little pictures of power tools that, presumably, the MAN-icurists will use upon your fingernails should you make an appointment to have them do so.

All of which begs the question: Surely, by this point, gendering things has gone too far?

Can we just come together as a culture and agree that, if a man requires reassurance that you offer a specifically masculine spa day, you are not going to convince him to get a manicure. This man is not a get for your place of business, and the sooner you realize that the better off you’ll be.

I’m not saying this is a good thing, or a bad thing, merely that it is. Facts have no moral weight, after all.

You own a salon, you want money from the fifty percent of the population that does not traditionally go to a salon, that’s fine. That’s normal. If men took spa days that would potentially double your profits and that would, as the owner of a business, be a desirable outcome indeed. I’m just saying that promising specifically masculine manicures is not going to bring anyone to you, and may well drive people away with it’s very outlandishness.

I do not own this salon, admittedly, perhaps it is very successful, I just can’t personally imagine the strategy working.

An advertizing campaign that said, “Hey, remember that one time your girlfriend took a spa day? Remember how relaxed she was afterward? You should totally do that!” for example, I would imagine bringing men to a salon. Men like to relax, and they like to be pampered, they just need to have the fact that it’s an option pointed out sometimes.

I have to have the fact that self-care is an option pointed out a lot of the time, I know how that is. All the ad would really have to do is remind me.

Perhaps simply a picture of Aziz Ansari, and the slogan “Treat Yourself!” That would DEFINITELY get men out for a spa day!

And then get you sued by Aziz Ansari.

So: Not that specifically. But something along those lines…