Mirrors. Love them or hate them, they are part of our everyday routine. When I wake up in the morning, I always brace myself to see what the mirror has in store for me. Usually, my hair is a mess (I sleep with it wet, so when I wake up, it is always a surprise), my eyes look like raccoon's (still don't have the hang of that makeup remover stuff), and my teeth need immediate brushing. Sometimes, if I am not careful, that is not the last time in the day that I spend too much time in front of the mirror.
Mirrors are dangerous because we take that judgmental part of us we usually use against other people, and turn it back on ourselves. Our hair is too curly, our thighs are too big, our teeth aren't white enough. To get more insight into this kind of attitude, I decided to ask some people the first thing they look at when they look in the mirror.
Girl Responses
"I would probably say my eyes, just the way I'm looking back at myself"
"I see my eyes first, like everything around them, so if I look tired, how my makeup looks, are my eyebrows done, etc.."
"I always notice my hair and if it looks goofy"
"I guess I look at my face and smile to see if my makeup is ok"
"I see how tired I am and decide from there if it's worth doing whatever I'm getting ready for"
"My chapped lips"
"My fat cheeks"
"Man, I need to shower"
Guy Responses
"I look at my face to make sure nothing is on it"
"Truthfully, I look to see if I look happy. I mean, I check to make sure I don't have any obvious pimples or stray hairs or anything, but I'd say most of the time I spend in front of the mirror is making my most common expressions and seeing if I look genuine. Like, I'd hate for someone to think that I'm not actually paying attention to them or I'm not interested in what they have to say."
"Eyes or stubble. To see if I need to shave"
"I look right at my ever-expanding gut and then I fix my hair. Gotta make sure that double chin is still there too."
"Definitely my hair because it is the only thing that needs fixing on a constant basis. Gotta keep the flow looking fresh"
"My blue eyes"
"How good I look"
The idea is age old. When a girl looks in the mirror, she immediately sees her flaws. That zit on her nose, the lack of tone in her arms, even something as silly as how close or far apart her eyebrows are. We've all seen Mean Girls right? "My nail beds suck." But guys? When they look in the mirror, they don't immediately see their flaws and make an evaluation about themselves. In fact, guys seem to look into the the mirror, notice something, and move on. Anything they see that is negative becomes a joke, not something that completely impacts their day.
Now, I may be totally wrong, but it seems to me like guys have a different take on the mirror. They use it as a tool, not as a scoreboard. I had a guy friend once that covered his mirror in paper to see how much he actually checked himself out in the mirror. I found that it annoyed me more than it did him, because I realized how much I would go try and fix my hair or see how I looked and was unable to. I wanted to evaluate myself, but was left completely unaware of my score.
I don't think that there is anything wrong with any of the answers given to me. In fact, I think that each and every person sees themselves in a unique way. I would just challenge us girls to see beyond the scoreboard. We don't need a mirror to tell us what we score. Because every single girl I got answers from is absolutely stunning, and looking at them, you would probably think "Dang, they are lucky. Woke up, flawless."
