This article proposes an interrogation of the tropes of female narcissism with a material history of the mirror and women's accounts of looking at themselves in nineteenth-century France. Drawing from a range of sources in order to trace the introduction of the vanity into domestic spaces, I argue that the newfound availability of the looking glass, while encouraging a self-objectification in the eyes of the others, likewise allowed female subjects the fashioning of a critical eye, the ability to construct and play with femininity and imagine alternative ways of being. By historicizing the act of looking at one's reflection, I aim to turn the female gaze back on itself, providing a contextualization of women's self-understanding and perception dependent on material and embodied practices.

中文翻译：

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透过玻璃，黑暗：19 世纪法国的女性气质与镜子


本文通过镜子的物质历史和 19 世纪法国女性审视自己的叙述，对女性自恋的比喻进行了拷问。为了追溯虚荣心进入家庭空间的过程，我从一系列来源中汲取灵感，认为新发现的镜子的可用性，虽然鼓励了他人眼中的自我物化，但同样让女性主体塑造了批判性的眼睛，能够构建和玩弄女性气质，并想象不同的存在方式。通过将观看自己倒影的行为历史化，我旨在将女性的凝视重新转向自身，为女性的自我理解和感知提供一种情境化，这些自我理解和感知依赖于物质和具体实践。