Mirror, mirror

How many times a day do you look in the mirror? For me, the day I wrote this, the answer was zero.

On a campus laden with Polos, pearls and an average size four body, Duke students are often accused of being superficial. We are supposedly obsessed with our own appearances (ironic, considering another accusation is that Duke students are kinda ugly.)

In an effort to uncover the validity of this accusation (of superficiality, not of ugliness), I ran two experiments: one to see how little I could check myself out, and the other to see how often other Duke students check themselves out.

My first experiment seems very simple: I tried to go for one entire day without looking in the mirror or any other reflective surface. However, as the day progressed, I gradually became more and more aware of how dependent we all are on our constant visual check-ups.

I started off the day confident that I could do it. I rolled out of bed, threw on a hoodie and jeans and was out the door. It wasn't until I cut myself off from mirrors that I realized how often I unconsciously look at them.

Even after I threw a towel over the mirror in my dorm room, I couldn't help stealing a glimpse of myself while brushing my teeth in the bathroom. When I went to Alpine for lunch, I was adjusting my sunglasses in the reflection of the sneeze guard without even being aware of it. At one point, I was even desperate enough to check out my shadow on the ground to make sure my hair wasn't sticking up.

It was interesting to note the reactions of other people as well:

"You look tired today...."

What was far more interesting, however, was the second experiment I ran. For this, I parked myself at a table on the Plaza to see how many students checked themselves out in the full-length shiny windows of the Gothic Bookstore. Come on, you all know what I am talking about: the windows to your left as you enter the Bryan Center, a prime self-check-out location.

Armed with a notebook, dark sunglasses and a sandwich (the sandwich didn't help; I was just hungry) I sketchily proceeded to tally up the amount of students who glanced at their own reflections as they walked by on their daily business between 11:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. The results were shocking.

Out of 187 students who passed me that hour, 62 checked themselves out in the window, or 33.2 percent. That's right. One out of three Duke students looked at their reflection in a freaking window as they walked by.

The interesting part is that these subtle glances at reflective surfaces seem largely unconscious. One friend of mine walked past twice, and when he saw me glaring at him behind my sunglasses and scribbling with my pen, he asked me what I was up to. I told him he had fallen prey to my experiment and had been one of the superficial third.

He had absolutely no recollection of having looked in the window. It was only after I insisted on it that he claimed he simply must have been looking at the book displays. A likely story.

So it appears that many Duke students are indeed afflicted with a subtle yet omnipresent obsession with their own appearances. What can be done about this? Not a whole lot. It has been so deeply ingrained in us that we don't even realize when we look for visual validation in the Gothic Bookstore windows, or those creepy mirrors in the 'Dillo or the lenses of our friends' sunglasses when we are talking to them (you know you all have done it.)

But it helps to know that most of the time, people are so damn consumed with their own appearance that they don't even notice yours. And every once in a while, it is nice to cozy up in a warm hoodie, rub your eyes without fear of smearing makeup all over and simply forget about your own face for the day.

And if anyone asks, you can always just tell them you are sick.

Stacy Chudwin is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Thursday.