Bodies in the mirror. Reflections on reflections

Abstract

Mirrors are not accurate reflectors. They multiply images, producing reflective doubles and funhouse mirror distortions, inversions, exaggerations and deformations. They allow us to observe ourselves and feel observed, creating an uncanny overlap between the self and the other; they challenge phenomenological boundaries, creating endless possibilities. Their false transparency can provide illusory perceptions and visual tricks. Mirrors reflect back to us, and usually what we see is not exactly what we expect. Mirrors are uncanny and disturbing objects from a phenomenological and experiential point of view. Taking the mirrored perspective as a metaphor for contemporary Euro-American society, which is dominated by the primacy of the image in both the real and virtual spheres, this special issue brings together six articles, a photo essay and a short documentary devoted to evidence of the inseparability of image and body, including idealised body images, self-representation, appearance, social display, normativity, beauty work, body normativity and unruly bodies, aesthetic labour and self-reconfiguration.