Two women, virtual strangers, sit hand-in-hand across a narrow table, both intent on the same thing-achieving the perfect manicure. Encounters like this occur thousands of times each day across the United States in nail salons overwhelmingly owned and operated by Asian immigrants. This study looks closely at these intimate encounters, focusing on New York City, where such nail salons have become ubiquitous. Countering notions of beauty service establishments as spaces for building community among women, The Managed Hand finds that while tentative and fragile solidarities can emerge across the manicure table, they generally give way to even more powerful divisions of race, class, and immigrant status.
Two women, virtual strangers, sit hand-in-hand across a narrow table, both intent on the same thing-achieving the perfect manicure. Encounters like this occur thousands of times each day across the United States in nail salons overwhelmingly owned and operated by Asian immigrants. This study looks closely at these intimate encounters, focusing on New York City, where such nail salons have become ubiquitous. Countering notions of beauty service establishments as spaces for building community among women, The Managed Hand finds that while tentative and fragile solidarities can emerge across the manicure table, they generally give way to even more powerful divisions of race, class, and immigrant status.
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