Essay On Mirror Stage

The mirror is a reflection of oneself; but, in a sense, it can reflect more than just one person. In one’s appearance—his clothes, his posture, his emotion— we see the opinions of society and their effect on a life. As gender is performative, in a mirror we not only see the actor, but also the audience. In Jacques Lacan’s essay regarding the “mirror stage,” it can be seen that the image in the mirror reflects the socialized I, a perception of identity crafted by society standards. Lacan, in his essay, explains that the “mirror stage” is the realization from a child’s viewpoint of a spatial identity, especially in regards to its neonatal capabilities. An infant enters the mirror stage at about six months of age, and the stage comes to an end “at the time when the specular I turns into the social I” ( Lacan 79). In other words, according to Lacan, the mirror stage begins a person’s sense of self, at first in an entirely physical sense of the term, then in regards to society. This perspective of a social I is especially important in Queer theory of gender, in that it is formed from the specular I through the ego …show more content…
In his scene with Agrado, Mario demonstrates a repression of homosexuality as expressed through the mirror. After asking Agrado for oral sex, and offering to reciprocate, Mario goes to the mirror, fixes his hair, puffs out his chest, then adjusts himself. After which, we see a scene in which Mario is the only character facing the camera, but we see a reflection of both his back, and Agrado in the mirror. This sequence suggests that even though ostensibly Mario presents himself as a masculine character, in the mirror, behind the back of his Social I, he shares more in common with the femininity and queerness of Agrado than one may