4.5b Charles Horton Cooley’s Looking-Glass Self
Charles Horton Cooley (1902) explained how a person’s self develops in response to how they imagine others perceive them, or the looking-glass self. The looking-glass self has three elements:
- How an individual imagines they appear to others
- How an individual imagines the other person or group judges their appearance
- A self-feeling one develops about oneself because of this imagined judgment (such as embarrassment or confidence)
The self is developed based on how an individual imagines others perceive them. Therefore, they may have an accurate, distorted, or false self-reflection in the looking-glass self.
The Looking-Glass Self Among Women Athletes
For example, consider the looking-glass self among women who do CrossFit. CrossFit consists of high-intensity workouts with strength training, a specialized diet, and a community of participants. In a focus group study of women who do CrossFit, researchers found they experienced a positive sense of self, with more self-confidence and feelings of personal growth (Malcom et al., 2021). However, their stronger and more muscular bodies conflicted with femininity norms. Hence, the women believed that others perceived their bodies as deviant. They had a positive sense of self but understood that others viewed them negatively, resulting in a distorted image. As a result, the internal looking-glass of participants in the program was like a “fun-house” mirror.
Photo 4.18
A Woman Doing CrossFit Exercise
Women athletes have long contended with developing bodies that conform to the demands of a particular sport. In contrast, those same bodies deviate from normative ideas about what women should look like. Lowe (1998) found that some women bodybuilders exaggerate their femininity through dress, hair, and make-up.
When other people view a woman’s body as deviating too much from the norm, others may question their sex and gender. For example, gold medal-winning Olympic boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria faced online harassment during the 2024 Olympics when powerful people, including J. K. Rowling, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump, questioned whether she was a woman.
Shortly after the 2024 Olympics, Khelif showed off a more feminine look on social media (Raiken, 2024), suggesting an effort to change perception. It is unknown how this situation affected Khelif’s sense of self. Still, she took action to change other’s perceptions, potentially changing how she perceived their real judgments. Overall, for Cooley, the self develops in response to how a person imagines others perceive them, no matter the accuracy of those judgments.
Photo 4.19
Gold Medal-Winning Olympic Boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria (left) Faced Online Harassment Regarding Her Gender Presentation
