The slickly designed monolithic iPhone, and I'm completely serious about this, is apparently contoured specifically for men and therefore sexist! Yes, another gem for the WTF file. This has to be one of the most stupid cases of over-activism to date. According to an article published in the Los Angeles Times, that's the claim being made by many women who believe the iPhone is unfairly designed and completely unusable by those of the fairer sex with long fingernails.
"Considering ergonomics and
user studies indicating men and women use their fingers and nails
differently, why does Apple persist in this misogyny?"
The other complaint was that it was designed for people with slim fingers, and naturally, women with chubby digits had trouble with the touch-screen.
How ridiculous. First of all, men can have chubby fingers too, and secondly the presumption that only women have long nails is in itself sexist! Afterall, some men may also choose to wear long fingernails, especially in the Bay area. Guitarists, male or female, tend to keep the picking-hand fingernails much longer than most people do to appegiate, or pluck the strings, but you don't here them whining on about being discriminated against.
Solution: trim your fingernails, or, if that is too hard to stomach, buy one of the other less trendy smartphones with a regular old keypad, the BlackBerry by RIM for example. My guess is though, that with long plastic stick-on nails, even this option would be a tad tricky.
What next, I wonder? (Human rights extended to Apes in Spain I hear—I'm sure the bulls in Spain want to get in on that gig!), or complaints about ATM machines, or the keys on Steinway pianos? Imagine a world of product design that had to take into consideration every fashion quirk. The mind boggles. Maybe Apple should come up with an after-market stylus, or even provide an optional prosthetic manicured finger for the digitally afflicted.
PS: The woman pictured is Lee Redmond, 65 of Utah and she currently holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest fingernails, with a combined length of 24.6 ft! She has been growing her fingernails since 1979. My guess is, and this is purely speculation, that she doesn't possess an iPhone.