Women Give Each Other Dirty Looks Far Too Often
Don’t look now. Those glances you exchange with other women have more influence than you might think. A new study conducted at Aberystwyth University in Wales discovered that woman-to-woman “looking” is important in how young women understood themselves and is central to women being recognized as women.
To delve into the glances women exchange — the up-and-downs, the side eyes, etc. — what they mean, how they make recipients feel, and why they give them, study authors Sarah Riley, Adrienne Evans, and Alison Mackiewicz interviewed 44 heterosexual British women aged 18-36. “The study revealed that women often look at each other in judgmental ways,” Dr. Riley told Yahoo Beauty. Riley said this creates anxiety because these women exist in a world where judgmental looking is common. “We argue that these looks hold ‘power’ because in our society women are encouraged to see appearance as the source of their value,” she said. Ain’t that the truth. “So a look that tells you if you are doing it ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ becomes about more than just appearance, but about if you are a validated person or not.” While we’ve all questioned our outfits or hair due to an unwanted glare, we never considered it affected the value we felt we had as human beings.
Luckily, there’s a flip side to this. Since those glares have so much power, that means the reverse is true too. “Friendly or admiring looks from women also had a big impact on our participants, making them feel good,” Riley noted.
There was a more informal student study that accompanied Riley’s work. “In the student study, Audrey Schneller asked her participants to text her experiences of being looked at, so we had some real-time examples. She then used these texts to start focus group discussions,” she explained. And we’re pretty sure you’ve typed or received some of these texts before:
“Just got thrown a really dirty look like to say ewww.”
“A woman looked at me and I felt judged.”
“A girl is fully staring at me and I looked at her and looked away and she’s still staring at me.”
“I was waiting in line at a bar and I made eye contact with a woman who was looking at me, then looked me up and down, this made me feel slightly awkward at the time.”
Riley said many participants recognized this last one, saying, “I get that all the time.”
“Some of the texts were about admiring other women’s appearance, but also comparing themselves to those women,” Riley said, noting that comparisons are linked to body dissatisfaction:
“I just watched a girl walk past whilst staring at her curly hair bouncing as she walked thinking woah I wish my hair looked that good.”
Don’t worry, there were some positive texts too — proof that the way you look at other women can make or break their day:
“A couple of women have smiled as they have walked past me. I like it when people randomly smile as they walk past, it sometimes makes my day when I’m stressed.”
With all the talk about “resting bitch face,” we were curious as to whether these “looks” were voluntary. And while Riley and her team didn’t ask that specifically, she has a feeling sometimes it’s just a natural reaction. “My sense is that it’s so normal for women to do it now, that it can feel like second nature,” she explained. However, that doesn’t mean we’re born with this ability and instinct to stare other women down; it’s definitely something society and media have taught us. “We would argue it’s a learnt behavior from living in a highly visual, consumer culture, in which women’s bodies are constantly on display to be judged,” she countered.
The study proves our body image isn’t constructed solely from our own feelings and beliefs, but the feelings of others toward us. “These findings suggest we should think of body image as a social process, since women’s body image is formed through interactions with other people, including looks they get from other women,” Riley stated.
So, before you give that girl your once-over, consider whether it’s worth affecting her self-image.
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