Conversation at family dinner: how do you hold your foot when you cut your toenails?
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@deadDuck Femme-Nonbinary, also have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrom which is likely relevant for my answer:
I hook my leg over my arm/shoulder. -
@deadDuck Those who put your ankle over your opposite knee - how do you get to the invisible side of your toenail to trim it well?
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@deadDuck
Most of the men I know don’t cut their toenails but rip them off with their hands. They even do it at the office. 🤮 -
@deadDuck I stand on one leg with the other foot resting on the seat of a chair, cut toe nails, then swap.
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@deadDuck @Bowreality The "heel to butt" position sounds like the one you'd use if you were putting nail polish on your toes, and would need to keep your foot horizontal & steady while getting a clear view, with both hands in a controlled access. So I wonder if the influencing factor is not gender directly but whether or not someone paints their toenails.
(For myself, it sounds awfully uncomfortable given the size of all the body parts that would have to collapse together! I'm ankle-over-knee, foot extending over waste bin. But I also have no patience for nail polish.)
@AmeliasBrain I’m F, heel-to-butt, and don’t wear nail polish.
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@deadDuck One foot on bathroom floor, other foot on bathroom sink. Cut the toenails on the sink
Gender = bi@SnyperWolf Toilet seat, but same in other respects. @deadDuck
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@deadDuck AFAB demiboy, heel to butt
and I feel like doing it the other way would be actively unhelpfulwonder if it's an assigned gender thing
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@deadDuck non-binary/agender, heel to butt

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For me it's like some kind of bizarre astrological alignment that I have to wait around for.
1. When the muscles in my legs are not rock solid
2. When the muscles in my rib cage also won't seize up.Then knee and foot on edge of bed half cross-legged or standing with foot on towel on edge of bath or toilet seat.
The non-binary agender way, I guess?
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@deadDuck
Most of the men I know don’t cut their toenails but rip them off with their hands. They even do it at the office. 🤮 -
@deadDuck Female: foot over ankle, propped up on tented knee, usually with foot turned under to cut nails on curly, smaller toes.
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@deadDuck Femme-Nonbinary, also have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrom which is likely relevant for my answer:
I hook my leg over my arm/shoulder.@miss_rodent I should try that. I need to get my foot close because my vision sucks, and I'm pretty bendy. @deadDuck
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@miss_rodent I should try that. I need to get my foot close because my vision sucks, and I'm pretty bendy. @deadDuck
@spiegelmama @deadDuck Worth trying, my hands are really shaky, and that position helps me avoid clipping my foot while trying to clip my nails, it lets me have both my elbows on the ground/surface I'm sitting on to stabilize against, but, also means my foot is close enough to aim even without my glasses easily.
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@deadDuck @blogdiva I’m an Old cis chick. I used to do heel-to-butt, but now my cranky joints very strenuously object, so I do it sittin on the bed, using a complicated system of ibuprofen, a spread-out newspaper, stacks of pillows under the knees, edibles, and numerous breaks between snips. It’s traumatic.
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@deadDuck I stand on one leg with the other foot resting on the seat of a chair, cut toe nails, then swap.
@DavidBridger @deadDuck Same. I'm male.
(I physically can't sit and bring my heel to my butt. Could just do the other way, but it would feel very awkward to cut my nails with my foot sideways like that)
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@deadDuck Like most supposed gender things: of course not.
I'm non-binary/agender and I have the foot over my other knee.
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@deadDuck Male, standing with the foot in question on the bathroom counter or side of the tub.
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@deadDuck the configuration & flexibility of male & female hips & knees differs a lot. I suspect that accounts for some of the trend.
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@deadDuck
The things you never consider others might be doing in a completely different way.
I'm a 47yo cis woman and I do heel to butt. Reading the other comments, I pray I'll never have to change it because of joint problems (I know, I know: the only way is to die before it happens. Sigh).
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@deadDuck transmasc, heel to butt. no other position gives me the same control and stability.
