just another mirrorless monday...

So I walked downstairs to the bathroom of the college I work for to take my morning constitutional, and noticed that the bathroom mirror had been covered with a giant piece of paper advertising that it was "mirrorless monday". Evidently, knowing what you look like is bad for your self-esteem, and our counseling center is trying to discourage it.

Of course, mirrors serve a practical purpose - they aren't just to remind you that you could stand to lose a few pounds, but also let you know important stuff like that your hair is sticking straight up or your fly is unzipped. But I guess it's more important that we buck up people's self-esteem.

The thing about personal appearance is that it is a combination of factors, ones you can control and ones you can't. You can't really do much about your height or the size of your nose. You have control over what you are wearing, hairstyle, ect. Weight is one of those things in the middle, imho - it's a combination of genetics and action. If you have a low metabolism, it's definitely harder to look good, but not impossible.

The thing about appearance is that, as much as we hate to admit it, it does tell us something about the person we are looking at - how they dress tells us how much they care about how they look, and people often send very powerful signals by what they choose to wear. Denying this may boost some people's self esteem, but it denies reality.

When I look in the mirror, I'm not always thrilled with what I see - I could dress better, I have horrible posture, I'm a few pounds above where I would like to be, and I really need new glasses that aren't way too big for my face. But those are all things I can work on, and if I never see what I look like I wouldn't know that. But I also get a certain amount of pride when I look in the mirror, because I'm not as fat as I used to and I'm proud of my stylish goatee. Of course, if I don't look that bad, then the reason for my single-ness must be due to my complete lack of personality, but that won't be fixed by covering up the mirror.