i hate mirrors, but i like pictures of myself. wait, hold on. i tolerate pictures other people take of me, but i really like pictures i take. mainly because other people want a picture of me the way i really look while i want a picture showing the absolute best of me. i don't like digitally manipulating the pictures, just going for rarely-used angles.
(do you really have a fear of female genitalia? i know another guy who did, and he desperately wanted to be bi, but he just couldn't get past the whole fem-gen thing and has stayed gay).
Pictures for me are just like reflections--some are good and some are just plain awful. It's probably like that for everyone, though. Digitally manipulated images are the result of people trying to make themselves look like the reflection they saw of themselves on the linoleum floor at the supermarket. Or maybe that's just me.
P.S. No, I don't really have a fear of the female genitalia--it's more of an intense anxiety. :)
I think you're right. A lot of times people who excessively look at themselves in the mirror (or the side of their toaster) are the exact opposite of vain. I think I've only met a couple of truly vain people in my life.
You may look stupid, but if you're like me, it has less to do with your actual appearance and more to do with the fact that you're flexing and making faces at the side of a truck.
Fun fact for the day: Outside of higher primates, dolphins are the only animals we know of that are able to recognize and examine themselves in mirrors.
Years ago, I looked into getting a funhouse kind of mirror to put above my bed... until I decided that sex is rich enough with comic potential without such distraction. It would be entertaining for a while, though... wouldn't it?
I don't have the happiest of relationships with mirrors... but I am easily entranced by my own reflection, often for embarrassingly long stretches. Things within and without that alter my perception of physical self fascinate me in an absurd loop of manipulative self-awareness.
I try to imagine what others perceive, especially those who love me, when they look at me through kinder eyes. I want to see what they see.
Great comment--it's obvious that we're on the same wavelength here. I'm especially intrigued by your last statement:
I try to imagine what others perceive, especially those who love me, when they look at me through kinder eyes. I want to see what they see.
I've thought about this at length. I started thinking about the whole "I want to see myself, for just a minute, through someone else's eyes" but then I realized that what you say about "kinder" eyes is very crucial. I've met people who I initially thought were unattractive, physically speaking, but over time their personality made them very attractive. The net result was that I could no longer objectively look at them and find them unattractive; I could no longer separate the physical from the emotional. Does that make sense? It's like those parents you see who have really ugly babies and they just can't see it. And never will. The point, and I think this is what you were alluding to, is that even though we have one face, it is viewed differently by everyone who sees it.
( ... )
I enjoy neither mirrors nor pictures, and it's only recently in life that I've figured out why : it's not me that I'm seeing.
When I think of myself, in my head I look nothing like that face that stares blankly back at me as I brush my teeth or comb my hair. That's just the tangible thing, the body that I exist beside, but I'm not really even inside of it.
I'm somewhere out in front, and this mushy pile of flesh seems to just follow me. It imposes all kinds of discomforts.. hunger, to make me feed it, fatigue to make me let it rest. I take care of it like a neighbor's puppy, not really mine so it's not my place to touch it, but sometimes I pause to give it love and marvel at this entity that I dont really understand. And as its tongue lolls out I wonder what's going on inside its head.
No.. faces in my mirror arent me. They're not what I look like. But they wont stop following me.
I think you just blew my mind...elhoserboyAugust 22 2003, 14:43:28 UTC
I'm curious then, if you're somewhere out in front of this human body that just follows you around, what do you think you look like? Are you talking about a physical representation here? Or something deeper?
The complexity of your comment has put me into another state of perplexity.
Mirror of ErisedberlinvirusAugust 22 2003, 06:43:31 UTC
I think we stare because we're trying to reconcile the self in our minds with what is presented before us in the reflection. Does this reflection measure up to what I know to be true?
Here's a fun "brain teaser": Imagine you are standing in front of a mirror, facing it. Raise your left hand. Raise your right hand. Look at your reflection. When you raise your left hand your reflection raises what appears to be his right hand. But when you tilt your head up, your reflection does too, and does not appear to tilt his/her head down. Why is it that the mirror appears to reverse left and right, but not up and down?
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(do you really have a fear of female genitalia? i know another guy who did, and he desperately wanted to be bi, but he just couldn't get past the whole fem-gen thing and has stayed gay).
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P.S. No, I don't really have a fear of the female genitalia--it's more of an intense anxiety. :)
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(The comment has been removed)
You may look stupid, but if you're like me, it has less to do with your actual appearance and more to do with the fact that you're flexing and making faces at the side of a truck.
Reply
Outside of higher primates, dolphins are the only animals we know of that are able to recognize and examine themselves in mirrors.
Years ago, I looked into getting a funhouse kind of mirror to put above my bed... until I decided that sex is rich enough with comic potential without such distraction. It would be entertaining for a while, though... wouldn't it?
I don't have the happiest of relationships with mirrors... but I am easily entranced by my own reflection, often for embarrassingly long stretches. Things within and without that alter my perception of physical self fascinate me in an absurd loop of manipulative self-awareness.
I try to imagine what others perceive, especially those who love me, when they look at me through kinder eyes. I want to see what they see.
Reply
I try to imagine what others perceive, especially those who love me, when they look at me through kinder eyes. I want to see what they see.
I've thought about this at length. I started thinking about the whole "I want to see myself, for just a minute, through someone else's eyes" but then I realized that what you say about "kinder" eyes is very crucial. I've met people who I initially thought were unattractive, physically speaking, but over time their personality made them very attractive. The net result was that I could no longer objectively look at them and find them unattractive; I could no longer separate the physical from the emotional. Does that make sense? It's like those parents you see who have really ugly babies and they just can't see it. And never will. The point, and I think this is what you were alluding to, is that even though we have one face, it is viewed differently by everyone who sees it. ( ... )
Reply
When I think of myself, in my head I look nothing like that face that stares blankly back at me as I brush my teeth or comb my hair. That's just the tangible thing, the body that I exist beside, but I'm not really even inside of it.
I'm somewhere out in front, and this mushy pile of flesh seems to just follow me. It imposes all kinds of discomforts.. hunger, to make me feed it, fatigue to make me let it rest. I take care of it like a neighbor's puppy, not really mine so it's not my place to touch it, but sometimes I pause to give it love and marvel at this entity that I dont really understand. And as its tongue lolls out I wonder what's going on inside its head.
No.. faces in my mirror arent me. They're not what I look like. But they wont stop following me.
Reply
The complexity of your comment has put me into another state of perplexity.
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One of my favorite sites is The Mirror Project.
Here's a fun "brain teaser": Imagine you are standing in front of a mirror, facing it. Raise your left hand. Raise your right hand. Look at your reflection. When you raise your left hand your reflection raises what appears to be his right hand. But when you tilt your head up, your reflection does too, and does not appear to tilt his/her head down. Why is it that the mirror appears to reverse left and right, but not up and down?
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