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| photo: getty images |
Writer Autumn Whitefield-Madrano, who blogs at
The Beheld, has decided to do away with the mirrors in her life for an entire month. You heard/read me.
I ... She said one month with no mirrors. I have to admit, an idea like that has never even whispered in my direction, so I was fascinated when I came across the story on
Clutch recently.
Whitefield-Madrano's inspiration came from the "
uncomfortable recognition" she had while reading the following quote, from
John Berger's Ways of Seeing: "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."
In preparation for the experiment, which she started on the 1st of this month, Whitefield-Madrano has covered up her bathroom mirror; her windows will either be open or covered with closed blinds, and any accidental meeting with her reflection throughout her days (shop windows, other peoples' homes, etc...) will be met with a swift turn of her head in the other direction. The only exception she'll make will be a small mirror she'll use to apply color (makeup) products. She wants her experiment to be about all the time she spends looking into mirrors for no practical reason (don't we all, especially without even realizing it?), and what happens with that time when the mirrors are taken away. She writes:
"There’s nothing wrong with looking in the mirror. There’s nothing wrong with sometimes looking to your reflection—even when it is impossibly subjective, and backward at that—for a breath of fortitude, centeredness, and assurance. I just want to see what life is like when I’m not using that image as my anchor; I want to see how it affects the way I move through the world, the way I regard myself and others. I want to know what it’s like to sever a primary tie to one of my greatest personal flaws—extraordinary self-consciousness—and I want to discover what will fill the space that the mirror has occupied until now." (The Beheld)
I don't know if I've ever loved an idea so much, while at the same time feeling like I wouldn't even know how to begin to try it. I mean, just thinking about the covered up bathroom mirror gave me a little anxiety, and I don't consider myself especially vain. So while, I may not have Whitefield-Madrano's gumption, I am a huge fan of her May mirrorlessness (try saying that 5 times, fast).
What about you? Could you live without looking into a mirror for a month? a couple of days?
