Gender query: Self-consciousness of image

[firecat]

I read a blog called The Beheld.

In this post, "Recommended Reading," Autumn Whitefield-Madrano discusses Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth and recommends some books that "go beyond" and "work alongside" Wolf's book. One of them is Ways of Seeing by John Berger. Whitefield-Madrano includes the following quote from the book:

A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whilst she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. … And so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman. … Thus she turns herself into an object—and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.

Whitefield-Madrano says that she relates to this quote.

I don't. Sometimes I dress to look and/or feel a certain way, but once I'm dressed, I don't go around constantly surveying myself. And when I do feel that way, I hate it.

So I'm trying to figure out whether this is in fact a part of being a woman or identifying as feminine (and thus my not doing it is part of my being genderqueer) or whether the author maybe doesn't know what he's talking about or is exaggerating what he's talking about (by using terms such as "continually" and "scarcely avoid").

I'd love for people of all genders to comment on this. What is your gender? Do you constantly watch yourself and feel aware of your image of yourself most of the time? Do you think women or people who identify as feminine usually do that?

Ways of Seeing was published in 1972. In what ways do you think enforced image self-consciousness for women or people who identify as feminine has changed since then?

Comments

[bibliofile]

Cis queer female, a geek person who has spent time with techies and hippies and fans. A while ago, though, I decided that it's ALL drag, so I often dress consciously, but I'm not always looking at myself throughout the day.

Growing up, I cared about appearance and then didn't care about it as a form of rebellion, I suppose. Also, I spent most of my childhood in preppy midwestern suburbs, which wasn't my style at all, so I felt less pressure regarding appearance.

As a young adult, however, I became very self-conscious about my appearance whenever I encountered my local women's community. The portions of the lesbian community that I encountered in '80s Chicago seemed to spend significant energy on coding appearance. (The biphobia didn't exactly make me feel at ease, either.)

I'm pretty sure that things would've been different had I grown up in, say, the South or Texas.

(continuing the thought, for coherence)

[bibliofile]

I know that things were different for people even ten years older than I am, much less in my parent's generation. For example, my mom wore girdles and stockings; I wore pantyhose instead, thinking more of stockings and garters as for sex play, not "real life." I wore slacks to job interviews and was surprised to find even one place where the hiring manage even had an opinion about that.

The advent of colored hose and opaque tights over the last twenty years has made life even better for dressing at all femme. It's possible to look acceptably feminine without shaving one's legs! And bare legs are normal for summer for GenX and GenY and Millenials, as workplace dress codes have relaxed tremendously since I started working. I'm not sure what the strictest business wear requires today, though I suspect it still bans bare legs along with open toed shoes and pants made from stretchy fabric....

Re: (continuing the thought, for coherence)

[cleverthylacine]

The Japanese influence on contemporary style has brought socks back into the repertoire of things that can be worn with skirts and short pants, as long as they coordinate well. Overknee and knee socks and anklets with dresses are perfectly fine in many places, as long as you're not, you know, wearing tube socks with a dress. I ALWAYS wear high socks with shorter skirts.

I own one pair of pantyhose and two pairs of tights (though I do want more tights as it is a more formal look) and I rarely wear either. I am all about cute socks.