Thread: Sochi Olympics and the Law against Gays in Russia +

Originally Posted by Deborski

For those who have Facebook, this is a fascinating discussion about the Swedish athlete who dared to paint her nails in rainbow colors.

Behold, the horror of these painted nails!

As we can all see, it is clearly something to be outraged about! Judging from the litany of hateful comments on the photo, you would think that she publicly urinated on the Russian flag! In fact - worse than that! It's as if she is a terrorist blowing up buildings or something!

When I read the phrase "rainbow nails", I was thinking of something more like this, with little tiny rainbow stripes on EACH nail:

The "official" gay flag has exactly SIX colors: красный, оранжевый, жёлтый, зелёный, синий, фиолетовый. (Ironically, in the context of this thread, the colors розовый and голубой DO NOT APPEAR on the flag!) There are also "non-gay" rainbow flags with more than six colors (the "peace rainbow" flag sometimes has 7 or 8 stripes).

If the athlete hadn't posted her picture with the tag #pride, I would never have guessed that this was some sort of gay propaganda, since her nails appear to have only three colors, and not a "whole rainbow". So, evidently, more than two colors + the word "pride" = insult to Russian feelings.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

When I read the phrase "rainbow nails", I was thinking of something more like this, with little tiny rainbow stripes on EACH nail:

Yeah I thought so too when I wrote my comment about it. It's kind of a cute look though, if you take the politics out of it.

But nail salons are not common in Sweden (it's an American - Anglo thing) and you couldn't do that yourself..
From the look of Emma Tregaro's nails she simply used some nail polish she had at home.
Since she was hellbent on doing it, she might as well have done it with style. There's probably an American style nail salon somewhere in Moscow that she could have gone to, to do it properly.

Originally Posted by Hanna

But nail salons are not common in Sweden (it's an American - Anglo thing)

Totally off the thread topic, but nail salons of this type in the States -- I've heard -- owe much of their popularity to (a) Vietnamese boat-people, and (b) actress Tippi Hedren, best known for Hitchcock's The Birds!

The story goes that Ms. Hedren, at a party in the 1970s, met a couple of Vietnamese-American entrepreneurs (a former South Vietnamese general and his wife!) who owned some hair salons in Los Angeles. At the time, their salons only did very simple manicures. Hedren told them that some Hollywood actresses paid hundreds of dollars for ultra-fancy nails with stripes and rhinestones glued all over them, and that Vietnamese girls who only knew 10 words of English could be taught how to give these "Hollywood style" manicures to middle-class American housewives, bringing in a much bigger profit for the salon.

Tippi's suggestion was a brilliant success, and even now more than half the nail salons in the U.S. are Vietnamese-owned.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Totally off the thread topic, but nail salons of this type in the States -- I've heard -- owe much of their popularity to (a) Vietnamese boat-people, and (b) actress Tippi Hedren, best known for Hitchcock's The Birds!

The story goes that Ms. Hedren, at a party in the 1970s, met a couple of Vietnamese-American entrepreneurs (a former South Vietnamese general and his wife!) who owned some hair salons in Los Angeles. At the time, their salons only did very simple manicures. Hedren told them that some Hollywood actresses paid hundreds of dollars for ultra-fancy nails with stripes and rhinestones glued all over them, and that Vietnamese girls who only knew 10 words of English could be taught how to give these "Hollywood style" manicures to middle-class American housewives, bringing in a much bigger profit for the salon.

Tippi's suggestion was a brilliant success, and even now more than half the nail salons in the U.S. are Vietnamese-owned.

All of the local nail salons are owned by Vietnamese immigrants, at least here in Spokane. I used to get my nails done when I was working in TV, but these days I don't bother with it often, and when I do, I apply my own acrylic because it's much less expensive than shelling out up to $50 for a professional manicure.

By the way: The people in Finland are not like the rest of Europe on this.
They are more on the Russian side of this debate.

They think everyone in Sweden (brother nation...) has gone totally insane, and become obsessed with this matter. (I agree with them) The Finns are 100% "be a real man" and almost take it too far at times, with neanderthal behaviour, spitting snuff boozing. The leading "gay personality" in Sweden, is actually Finnish. You can't turn on the TV without seeing his face within five minutes, and his lover who is also a TV personality.

Originally Posted by Marcus

The real power is in the hands of those who control the American financial system.

Agree, but no point mixing up religion with it. It's hardly religious motives driving the people in question.