#71 Nail design as political education

Conversational situations arise at almost every turn in everyday life. However, we don't usually get into particularly long or in-depth conversations, especially with people we don't know. But sometimes there are situations in everyday life where people could talk more intensively.

For example, in a nail salon. People get their nails done, shaped and beautified there. Often, the nail designer and customer, who are sitting close to each other, get talking anyway and spend some time together at the studio table. Anything is possible: two-tone nails with colorful patterns, unusual shapes and miniature images. There are artists who have mastered nail design so well that they can even apply the most detailed picture elements or even sticker portraits to fingernails. The nail motifs themselves can certainly provide political talking points.

What if the nail designer and the customer could talk about the motifs to be applied to the nails while they are sitting opposite each other? These could be their own political role models, for example. If the likeness of Simone de Beauvoir appears on a nail, this is the perfect opportunity to talk about Beauvoir's observations, positions and basic feminist ideas. Thematically, such conversations could of course be framed in very different ways.

If you take this idea a step further, you could even come up with a great event idea that also welcomes non-professional "nail designers": two people sit opposite each other at a table. They design each other's nails and engage in political discussions (e.g. via impulse cards or political nail stickers). It would also be conceivable to install a spinning wheel on which colors/designs and topics are spun, which can then be designed and discussed.