Your random thought for the day: Lookers
Nov. 29th, 2018 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
garoteThere is a group of people who look, and a group of people who are looked at. The people who look get to see the environment, notice things more easily, and have greater situational awareness. Their compulsion to act pairs with this to naturally give them more power in situations.
The people who are looked at, meanwhile, understand that when they look around, they are looking at lookers. They are observed looking, and that sends a signal that they are interested in some kind of interaction. In order to avoid this, they avert their eyes, do not look, avoid the challenge or invitation. This limits their agency.
So naturally when they look around and notice lookers who do not appear to be particularly interested in them, or lookers who are engaged with looking at someone or something else, they relax slightly. They can claim more agency. Dark, crowded bars, and loud clubs with flashing lights are disorienting to lookers and thus safer for the looked at as well.
Lookers notice each other. They are constantly assessing each other as threats. They understand how being looked at can be threatening, but the angle they usually miss - perhaps never understand at all - is how limited the agency of the looked at truly is. If you cannot even look around to assess your surroundings without inviting interaction, how much harder is it to assess threats and navigate the world?
So here's your interesting thought:
The niqāb, a muslim garment that covers the face and is much maligned in western culture, can actually grant agency. Wearing it, the looked at can look around without lookers realizing it, and avoid inviting interaction from lookers.
And now, of course, I have to add disclaimers:
I ain't saying I'm in favor of the niqāb, or any society that compels people to wear it. Because I ain't. I'm just pointing out why people might have sane, sensible reasons to choose to wear it.
The people who are looked at, meanwhile, understand that when they look around, they are looking at lookers. They are observed looking, and that sends a signal that they are interested in some kind of interaction. In order to avoid this, they avert their eyes, do not look, avoid the challenge or invitation. This limits their agency.
So naturally when they look around and notice lookers who do not appear to be particularly interested in them, or lookers who are engaged with looking at someone or something else, they relax slightly. They can claim more agency. Dark, crowded bars, and loud clubs with flashing lights are disorienting to lookers and thus safer for the looked at as well.
Lookers notice each other. They are constantly assessing each other as threats. They understand how being looked at can be threatening, but the angle they usually miss - perhaps never understand at all - is how limited the agency of the looked at truly is. If you cannot even look around to assess your surroundings without inviting interaction, how much harder is it to assess threats and navigate the world?
So here's your interesting thought:
The niqāb, a muslim garment that covers the face and is much maligned in western culture, can actually grant agency. Wearing it, the looked at can look around without lookers realizing it, and avoid inviting interaction from lookers.
And now, of course, I have to add disclaimers:
I ain't saying I'm in favor of the niqāb, or any society that compels people to wear it. Because I ain't. I'm just pointing out why people might have sane, sensible reasons to choose to wear it.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-30 04:43 am (UTC)At conferences it's even more like this. Especially when you encounter people that know you and you don't know them. You talk, you may remember them, then you remember that guy's talk, etc, and it's a shame that you forgot his face.
Oh, and regarding being invisible while looking - pretending to take a selfie while actually taking someone's picture is one of such tricks. Sunglasses are also a good tool. Well, that's if you want to look...
no subject
Date: 2018-11-30 04:57 am (UTC)