Andrea Horan: Why are flags on fingernails less valid than those in windows?

We need to ask ourselves why some art forms are considered credible and others the butt of jokes, writes nail salon owner and activist Andrea Horan 

Social Democrats TD, Sinead Gibney. Why would her statement of solidarity and support for Palestine be reduced to a cheap blow simply because one of the ways she communicates it is in the form of nail art? File picture: Arthur Carron/Collins

The other week, one of our clients in Tropical Popical (who happens to be a TD) was assigned the moniker Nailson Mandela for daring to use their nails as a platform to protest against the genocide that Israel continues to ravage upon Gaza. 

Whilst the label is a genius sardonic victory for sure, the underlying snideness behind it is clearly rooted in a misogyny that dismisses any female-led form of art or protest as frivolous, inferior and even distasteful.